Biog.  &  Crit. 
Moncure,  H.C.L. 


Cataloged 


:;- 


s 


pP'm  O'GElIlDIU  GKS 


IN 


MEMORIAM 


OF 


Judge  R.  C.  L.  MONCURE 


AND 


Judge  ROBT.  OULD- 


«*  » 


RICHMOND  : 
D ALTON  &  GUTHRIE,  Print. 

1883. 


&&*** 


£ 


Duke  University  Ubtftiy 


PBOOEEDIUGS 


IN 


MEMORIAM 


OF 


Judge  R.  C.  L.  MONCURE 


AND 

f        . 


Judge  ROBT.  OULD. 


RICHMOND  : 
DALTON  &  GUTHRIE,  Print. 
1883. 


PREFACE. 

The  lives  and  deaths  of  persons  who  have  been  eminent 
in  the  different  spheres  in  which  they  have  been  prominent 
actors  are  worthy  of  the  highest  commemoration  by  the 
living,  as  incentives  to  similar  attainments  by  subsequent 
generations ;  and  thus,  though  dead,  may  still  speak  through 
past  words  and  actions  with  eloquence  rendered  more 
impressive  and  solemn  by  the  consideration  that  only  thus 
can  their  elevation  and  excellencies  be  preserved  as  pre- 
cious treasures  by  their  admiring  and  appreciative  cotem- 
poraries. 

■  Our  State  and  country  have  reason  to  lament  the  recent 
departure  of  some  of  its  brightest  intellectual  luminaries 
in  Judges  E.  C.  L.  Moncure,  and  Kobt.  Ould  and  Hon.  Jas. 
Lyons.  Public  meetings  and  addresses  have  occurred, 
exciting  interest  throughout  the  country  and  desire  for 
their  publication. 

It  has  been  thus  determined  to  collect  them  for  presen- 
tation in  convenient  form  for  preservation  and  perusal,  as 
exhibited  in  the  following  pages. 


v  .  r\       ~i  THE  LOWERS  COLLECTION 

3  I  Oct    *  G7"/  r 

Cataloged 


Judge  R.  C.  L.  MONCURE. 


RESOLUTIONS,  &c. 

The  meeting  held  by  the  Bar  of  Richmond  to  take  me- 
morial action  on  the  death  of  Judge  R.  C.  L.  Moncure  was 
very  largely  attended  "by  the  members  of  the  profession, 
not  only  in  Richmond,  but  from  distant  parts  of  the  State. 

The  court-room  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  was  nearly  filled, 
and  the  exercises  were  of  the  most  interesting  and  solemn 
character. 

Judge  Christian  was,  on  motion  of  Judge  Fitzhugh, 
made  chairman.  He  made  a  beautiful  and  feeling  address, 
as  follows  : 

Gentlemen  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of   Virginia  : 

I  accept  gratefully  and  with  pride  the  position  you  have 
assigned  me  as  president  of  this  meeting. 

This  large  assemblage  of  the  representative  men  of  the 
Bench  and  Bar  of  Virginia  attests  more  eloquently  than 
any  poor  words  of  mine  the  respect,  reverence  and  filial 
affection  which  we  all  feel  for  that  great  jurist  and  noble 
citizen  whose  memory  we  come  to  honor  to-day. 

Within  this  hall  and  at  the  other  places  of  session  of 
this  court  in  the  last  twelve  years  we  have  had  many  sad 
meetings  to  express  our  sense  of  bereavement  by  death  of 
so  many,  alas  !  so  many  of  our  beloved  companions  of  the 
Bench  and  Bar  of  the  State  :  a  long  catalogue — Allen,  Lee, 
Joynes,  Bouldin,  Hallyburton,  Daniel,  Guigon  and  Mere- 
dith of  the  Bench,  and  William  Green,  R.  T.  Daniel,  N.  P. 


4  JUDGE    E.   C.   L.  MONCUEE. 

Howard,  Patrick  H.  Aylett,  John  G.  Williams,  Henry  A. 
Wise,  Holladay,  Peachy  E.  Grattan,  John  Baldwin,  Michie, 
James  W.  Sheffey,  Campbell,  Hnmes,  Beverly  Johnston, 
and  a  number  of  others,  old  and  young,  who  in  the  short 
period  of  twelve  years  have  passed  away,  admonishing  us 
of  the  uncertainty  of  life,  and  painfully  impressing  us  of 
how  many  great  and  good  men  in  this  brief  period  of 
twelve  years  have  been  lost  to  our  profession  and  to  the 
State. 

This  is  a  galaxy  of  great  names  of  which  any  State 
might  be  proud — jurists,  and  orators,  and  scholars  who 
illustrated  by  their  great  talents,  and  genius,  and  learning 
that  the  Bar  of  Virginia  was  second  to  no  Bar  of  any  State 
in  the  Union.  And  now  we  come  together  again,  after 
laying  in  the  grave  so  many  of  our  brethren,  to  honor  the 
memory  of  him  who  was  more  than  a  brother  to  us  all, 
indeed  the  father  of  our  profession. 

We  come  reverently  to  perform  a  filial  duty. 

Not  only  every  surviving  member  of  this  Bench,  but 
every  member  of  the  Bar  of  the  State  and  the  whole  peo- 
ple of  the  Commonwealth  to-day  mourn  the  death  of  that 
great  jurist  and  noble  citizen,  Judge  B,.  C.  L.  Moncure. 

He  had  the  respect,  affection  and  reverence  of  the  peo- 
ple as  well  as  the  Bench  and  Bar. 

His  pure  character,  his  simplicity,  his  blameless  life,  his 
courage,  his  inflexible  devotion  to  duty,  unostentatious  and 
unselfish  life  won  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  there  are 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  people  to-day  in  Vir- 
ginia who,  knowing  nothing  of  him  as  a  great  jurist  as  he 
is  known  by  the  Bench  and  Bar,  yet  love  him  as  a  man, 
love  and  cherish  his  memory,  and  love  the  example  of  his 
noble  life  ilustrated  by  so  many  manly  and  Christian  vir- 
tues, and  who  will  say  of  him,  a  purer  and  nobler  man 
never  lived  or  died. 

But  in  opening  these  proceedings  as  president  of  this 
meeting,  I  will  not  attempt  to  pronounce  his  eulogy.  I  am 
not  equal  to  the  task.  After  seventeen  years  of  service  on 
the  Bench  I  feel  I  have  no  aptitude  to  speak  on  such  an 
occasion.  There  are  distinguished  members  of  the  Bar 
present  who  will  eloquently  discharge  that  duty.  I  will 
leave  it  to  them. 

I  can  only  briefly  refer  to  the  public  career  of  this  great 
and  good  man,  and  to  the  striking  points  of  his  noble  char- 


JUDGE    R.    C.   L.    MONCURE.  O 

acter.  I  think  I  am  at  least  equal  to  this  task.  I  knew 
him  as  well  as  any  man  can  know  another,  and  I  loved  him 
.as  well  as  any  man  could  love  another.  He  was  for  more 
than  thirty  years  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals,  and  for 
fifteen  years  its  president.  There  are  many  of  us  now 
present  who  never  knew  him,  except  as  a  judge  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals.  You  will  pardon  me  for  a  reference  to 
myself,  simply  because  it  illustrates  his  character. 

The  first  case  of  importance,  after  I  came  to  the  Bar, 
when  I  was  a  very  young  man,  I  argued  in  the  District 
Court  of  Appeals  at  Fredericksburg,  of  which  Judge  Mon- 
cure  was  president,  sitting  with  Lomax,  Clopton,  Meredith 
and  Tyler — all  now  sleeping  in  their  honored  graves. 

I  shall  never  forget,  but  will  ever  gratefully  remember, 
the  kind  words  of  encouragement  with  which  he  spoke  of 
my  poor  argument  in  that,  my  first  important  case. 

What  he  said  to  me  then  was  a  stimulus  which  had  its 
effects  upon  my  professional  and  judicial  career. 

Afterwards,  for  seventeen  years,  I  sat  by  his  side  on  the 
Bench  of  the  District  Court  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ap- 
peals. 

In  all  that  period  I  looked  up  to  him  as  the  Nestor  of 
the  Bench,  whose  wisdom  not  only  guided  us  in  our  deci- 
sions, but  which  inspired  the  public  mind  with  confidence, 
because  the  public  trusted  the  integrity,  purity  and  learn- 
ing of  this  great  head  of  the  Judicial  Department  of  the 
State. 

All  men  felt  and  knew  that  the  decisions  of  Judge  Mon- 
cure  were  the  utterances  of  a  pure  and  incorruptible  judge, 
who  always  declared  what  he  believed  to  be  right  without 
fear,  favor  or  prejudice. 

It  will  ever  be  the  proudest  recollection  of  my  life  that 
this  great  and  good  man  was  my  friend,  and  that  I  can 
truly  say  of  him,  as  was  once  said  by  a  great  lawyer  of  a 
great  judge,  "I  did  love  the  man  and  do  honor  to  his  mem- 
ory on  this  side  of  idolatry  as  much  as  any."  And  if  his 
reputation  as  a  man  and  as  a  judge  had  ever  been  assailed, 
and  needed  any  defence,  I  would  have  been  as  quick  to 
defend  him  from  all  assaults  as  a  son  would  be  to  shield 
his  father. 

Let  me  now  briefly  refer  to  his  public  career.  Coming  to 
the  Bar  at  the  early  age  of  twenty  he  soon  attained  the 
first  rank  in  his  profession  in  the  courts  in  which  he  prac- 


6  JUDGE    E.   C.   L.  M0NCUEE. 

ticed.     His  first  public  service  was  in  the  Legislature  of 
1849-'50. 

Such  was  his  learning  and  accuracy  as  a  lawyer,  and  so 
did  he  impress  himself  upon  that  body  of  great  men  and 
great  lawyers,  that  he  was  placed  on  the  committee  for 
the  revision  of  the  statute  law  of  the  State,  and  every 
lawyer  before  me  knows  how  diligently  and  faithfully  he 
performed  that  great  work  of  revision  and  brought  out  of 
chaos  and  confusion,  and  aided  by  his  great  associates, 
produced  the  most  compact  and  comprehensive  system  of 
statute  law  to  be  found  in  any  State  of  the  Union. 

During  the  same  session  of  the  Legislature,  on  the  13th 
of  March,  1851,  he  was  elected  to  fill  the  vacancy  occa- 
sioned by  the  death  of  the  venerable  Judge  Brooke. 

Under  the  Constitution  of  1851,  which  provided  that 
judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals  should  be  elected 
by  the  people,  Judge  Moncure  was  elected  one  of  the  five 
judges.  This  position  he  held  up  to  the  close  of  the  war, 
when  for  a  brief  period  he  retired  to  private  life,  but  as 
soon  as  the  restored  government  was  established  he  was. 
again  elected  by  the  Legislature  of  that  government,  and 
was  then  elected  as  president  of  the  Court. 

Again,  in  the  dark  days  of  reconstruction,  when  the  mil- 
itary government  came  in,  he  retired  once  more  to  private 
life.  But  as  soon  as  civil  government  was  restored  upon 
the  adoption  of  the  present  Constitution  he  was  again 
elected  by  the  Legislature  as  one  of  the  five  judges  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals,  and  was  again  appointed  its  president, 
which  position  he  held  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  which 
occurred  on  the  24th  of  August,  1882. 

It  thus  appears  that  he  was  for  more  than  thirty  years 
on  the  Bench  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  this  State,  and 
for  more  than  fifteen  years  its  president.  And  for  all  that 
thirty  years  the  ermine  he  wore  was  pure  and  unspotted 
until  he  laid  it  aside  for  the  habiliments  of  the  grave. 

In  twenty-seven  volumes  of  Grattan's  Keports,  extend- 
ing from  7th  Grattan  to  1st  Matthews,  or  75th  Virginia, 
may  be  found  his  great  opinions,  covering  a  period  of  over 
a  quarter  of  a  century. 

These  opinions  will  stand  forever  as  enduring  memorials 
of  his  great  judicial  career. 

"Though  dead,  he  yet  speaketh,"  and  for  years  to  come 
will  continue  to  speak  to  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  Virginia 


JUDGE  E.   C.   L.   MONCUKE.  7 

and  of  the  whole  country,  words  of  wisdom  to  guide  "both 
Bench  and  Bar  in  the  application  of  these  great  principles 
of  law  which  protect  and  guard  the  rights  of  life,  liberty 
and  property  in  every  free  country. 

But  this  brief  sketch  of  his  public  services  would  be  in- 
complete without  reference  to  his  private  character,  in 
which  he  shone  as  an  exemplar  of  every  manly  and  chris- 
tian virtue. 

He  was  of  all  the  men  I  ever  met  on  this  earth,  the  most 
devoted  and  earnest  lover  of  truth  for  truth's  sake. 

When  reflection  convinced  him  he  had  been  wrong,  he 
took  the  first  opportunity  to  acknowledge  it.  He  was 
often  the  earliest  to  discover  his  own  mistakes  as  well  as 
the  foremost  to  correct  them. 

I  think  the  language  of  a  great  judge  in  reference  to  the 
character  of  that  great  jurist,  Chief- Justice  Gibson,  of 
Pennsylvania,  may  be  well  applied  to  Judge  Moncure  : 
"  He  was  inflexibly  honest.  The  judical  ermine  was  as  un- 
spotted when  he  laid  it  aside  for  habiliments  of  the  grave 
as  when  he  first  assumed  it."  I  do  not  mean  to  award  to 
him  merely  that  commonplace  integrity  which  is  no  honor 
to  have,  but  simply  a  disgrace  to  want. 

He  was  not  only  incorruptible,  but  scrupulously,  deli- 
cately, and  conscientiously  free  from  all  wilful  wrong  in 
thought,  word,  or  deed. 

The  benevolence  of  his  heart  was  one  of  the  most  mark- 
ed features  of  his  character.  Affectionate  and  kind  to 
his  friends,  he  was  magnanimous  to  his  enemies,  who  were 
few  if  any.  Benefits  received  by  him  were  engraved  on 
his  memory  as  on  a  tablet  of  brass.  Injuries  were  written 
on  sand.  He  was  quick  to  forgive,  and  "  never  let  the  sun 
go  down  upon  his  wrath." 

The  most  conspicuous  trait  of  his  character  was  devotion 
to  duty,  and  his  whole  life  illustrated  that  conscientious 
purpose,  never  to  disregard  the  obligations  of  duty,  so  graph- 
ically set  forth  by  the  great  orator  of  America  when  he 
said:  "There  is  no  evil  that  we  cannot  either  face  or  fly  from 
but  the  consciousness  of  duty  disregarged.  A  sense  of 
duty  persues  us  ever.  It  is  omnipresent  like  the  Deity.  If 
we  take  to  ourselves  the  wings  of  the  morning  and  dwell 
in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea  ,  duty  performed  or  duty 
violated  is  still  with  us  for  our  happiness  or  our  misery. 
If  we  say  the  darkness  shall  cover  us,  in  the  darkness  as 


8  JUDGE   R.    C.   L.    MONCURE. 

in  the  light  our  obligations  are  yet  with  us.  "We  cannot 
escape  their  presence.  They  are  with  us  in  this  life,  will 
be  with  us  at  its  close  ;  and  in  that  scene  of  inconceivable 
solemnty  which  lies  yet  farther  onward,  we  shall  find  our- 
selves surrounded  by  the  consciousness  of  duty,  to  pain  us 
wherever  it  has  been  violated  and  to  console  us  so  far  as 
God  may  have  given  us  grace  to  perform  it." 

It  may  be  truly  said  of  Judge  Moncure,  he  was  without 
prejudice  as  well  as  without  fear.  His  firmness  and  moral 
courage  were  only  equalled  by  his  simplicty,  which  was 
sublime,  and  to  him  may  be  applied  the  words  of  the  poet 
laureat  of  England : 

"Rich  in  saving  common  sense, 
And  as  the  greatest  only  are, 
In  his  simplicty  sublime." 

And  looking  now  upon  that  portrait  hanging  before  you, 
recently  placed  in  this  hall,  in  woich  the  great  artist  has 
brought  out  every  lineament  of  his  noble  features,  we  may 
say  of  him  as  the  same  poet  said  of  the  Duke  of  "Welling- 
ton, 

"  O.  good  grey  head,  which  all  men  knew, 
O,  iron  nerve,  to  true  occasion  true, 
O,  fallen  at  length,  that  tower  of  strength, 
Which  stood  four-square  to  every  wind  that  blew." 

And  now  I  cannot  close  these  remarks  without  reference 
to  his  godly  life  and  Christian  character ;  the  picture  would 
be  incomplete  without  reference  to  this.  I  have  spoken 
already  of  the  sublime  simplicity  of  his  character.  His 
Christian  faith  was  simple  as  that  of  a  little  child.  He 
believed  the  Bible,  and  accepted  it  all  as  true.  He  was  no 
bigot.  He  was  an  ardent  Episcopalian,  believing  in  all 
the  doctrines  and  tenets  of  that  Church,  but  of  broad  and 
catholic  spirit.  He  recognized  in  all  the  churches  the 
principles  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  accorded  to  them 
all  the  right  to  believe  in  the  doctrines  of  their  own 
church. 

This  was  illustrated  by  a  remark  he  has  often  made  to 
me,  which  was  in  effect  this  :  "  In  all  the  churches  there 
are  good  Christians,  and  when  I  meet  a  man  whose  life  is 
governed  by  the  commands  and  precepts  of  the  Bible,  I 
greet  that  man  as  a  Christian,  and  never  inquire  to  what 
church  he  belongs — such  a  man,  whether  Catholic,  Episco- 


JUDGE  R.   C.   L.   MONCURE.  9 

palian,  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  or  Methodist,  I  recognize  as 
my  Christian  brother,  believers  in  the  same  great  doctrines 
of  the  Bible." 

I  heard  him  say  on  one  occasion  (and  this  I  want  to  put 
on  record)  to  some  young  graduates  of  the  University  of 
Virginia,  who  came  to  us  for  examination,  and  in  reply  to 
one  who  asked  the  question,  What  is  the  best  law  book  for 
a  young  lawyer  to  read  ?  he  said :  "  The  best  law  book, 
young  gentlemen,  to  start  with,  is  the  Bible.  Kead  and 
study  that  as  the  foundation  of  all  law  and  of  all  juris- 
prudence of  every  civilized  country."  * 
.  And  now,  in  conclusion,  I  cannot  refrain  from  giving  you 
an  account  of  his  peaceful  end. 

We  all  know  how  he  lived,  let  me  tell  you  how  he  died. 

It  was  my  mournful  privilege  to  take  leave  of  him  on 
his  death-bed  a  short  time  before  he  passed  away. 

He  was  the  only  man  I  ever  saw  who  was  not  only  will- 
ing but  anxious  to  die.  He  was  then  greatly  enfeebled  in 
mind  and  body,  a  mere  wreck  of  his  former  self.  But  he 
recognized  me  at  once  and  expressed  great  pleasure  at  see-' 
ing  me  before  his  death,  saying  it  was  the  last  time  we 
should  ever  meet  on  earth.  With  difficulty  of  speech  he 
inquired  affectionately  after  all  his  brethren  on  the  Bench 
and  of  many  of  the  members  of  the  Bar,  with  whom  he 
was  closely  associated  and  dearly  attached.  He  said  to  me 
when  we  parted,  taking  me  by  both  hands,  and  with  some- 
thing of  the  fire  and  energy  of  his  former  nature,  "  Fare- 
well, my  dear  old  friend,  we  shall  never  meet  again  on 
this  earth ;  you  have  sat  by  my  side  for  seventeen  years 
on  the  bench  of  the  District  Court  and  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals. All  that  time  we  have  been  fast  friends,  we  have 
tried  to  do  our  duty  in  the  most  trying  and  difficult  period 
in  the  history  of  our  State.  You  see  me  now  a  dying  man  ; 
I  have  no  fear  of  death ;  I  long  to  be  at  rest.  I  can  no 
longer  be  of  any  service  to  my  family  or  to  my  State,  and 
am  ready  to  go.  I  wish  I  could  die  now  while  you  are 
standing  by  my  bedside  and  holding  my  hand.  My  affairs 
in  this  life  are  now  all  closed,  and  I  long  to  enter  upon 
that  immortal  life.  There  is  only  one  thing  that  now  dis- 
turbs me  :  I  fear  I  am  sinning  against  our  Heavenly  Father 
by  my  impatience  to  die  and  go  at  once  to  my  eternal 
rest." 

These  were  the  last  words  I  heard  him  utter,  and  I  de- 
2 


10  JUDGE   K.    C.    L.    MONCUKE. 

liver  tliem  to  you  to  show  how  a  great  and  good  man  can 
meet  his  death. 

He  served  his  country  well.  He  died  wept  and  honored 
"by  a  whole  Commonwealth. 

"  And  now  he  wears  a  truer  crown 
Than  any  wreath  that  man  can  weave  him." 

At  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks,  and  on  motion  of  Judge 
George  L.  Christian,  St.  George  E.  Fitzhugh,  Esq..,  and  Ma- 
jor Robert  Styles  were  elected  secretaries  of  the  meeting ; 
and  on  motion  of  Major  Legh  R.  Page,  the  following  Com- 
mittee on  Resolutions  was  appointed — viz. :  Messrs.  Legh 
R.  Page,  Judge  E.  H.  Fitzhugh,  James  Alfred  Jones,  Judge 
Beverly  R.  Wellford,  Judge  Robert  Ould,  Judge  "W.  W. 
Crump,  Judge  George  L.  Christian,  John  O.  Steger,  John 
H.  Guy,  Judge  Richard  Parker,  J.  S.  Harnsberger,  J. 
Thompson  Brown,  John  A.  Waddill,  James  M.  Stubbs,  ex- 
Senator  John  "W.  Johnston,  and  J.  V.  Brooke. 

During  the  absence  of  the  committee  letters  were  read 
from  Prof.  John  B.  Minor,  John  A.  Campbell,  Henry  E. 
Blair,  Prof.  S.  O.  Southall,  Hon.  John  W.  Daniel,  Hon.  A. 
H.  H.  Stuart,  C.  W.  Wattles,  Judge  James  Garland,  and 
Robert  Crockett. 

Speeches  were  made  by  E.  G.  Booth,  Esq.'.,  Judge  B.  R. 
Wellford,  Jr.,  Robert  W.  Ward,  Esq..,  Judge  Richard  Parker, 
Major  Robert  Styles,  C.  G.  Griswold,  Esq..,  and  W.  C. 
Roane. 

The  Committee  on  Resolutions  made  the  following  re- 
port : 

The  members  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  this  Common- 
wealth, called  together  by  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Richard 
C.  L.  Moncure,  desire  not  only  to  express  a  deep  sense  of 
their  loss,  but  to  bear  witness  to  the  great  value  of  his 
public  services,  to  the  rare  simplicity  of  his  character,  the 
courtesy  and  kindness  of  his  manner  and  his  single-minded 
devotion  for  a  long  life  to  the  profession  of  his  choice. 

Very  early  in  life  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Legis- 


JUDGE   R.    C.   L.    MONCURE.  11 

lature  from  Stafford,  his  native  county,  but  he  soon  retired 
from  political  life,  and  devoted  himself  to  his  profession. 
He  was  then  appointed  Attorney  for  the  Commonwealth, 
which  place  he  filled  until  1849,  when  he  was  prevailed 
upon  to  represent  the  county  as  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Delegates.  The  revision  of  our  laws  then  excited  a  great 
measure  of  public  attention,  and  he  was  appointed  by  that 
body  chairman  of  the  committee.  While  a  member  of  the 
Legislature  he  was  elected  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals 
to  fill  a  vacancy  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Judge  Brooke. 
Soon  thereafter  he  was,  under  the  new  Constitution,  again 
elected  to  the  same  office  by  the  people,  and  without  oppo- 
sition. He  continued  to  hold  the  position,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  brief  period,  until  removed  by  the  military  power 
in  the  days  of  reconstruction.  When  that  political  era  had 
ended  he  was  re-elected  for  a  term  of  twelve  years  from 
January,  1870,  and  was  chosen  by  his  associates  as  presi- 
dent of  the  court;  and  there  he  remained  until  death  closed 
his  useful  and  honored  career. 

The  patient  and  earnest  industry  with  which  he  investi- 
gated every  case  before  he  formed  his  judgment  is  well 
known,  not  only  to  his  associates  upon  the  bench,  but  to 
the  bar  throughout  the  State.  His  recorded  opinions,  cov- 
ering a  period  of  more  than  thirty  years,  best  attest  his 
profound  learning,  his  extensive  research,  and  the  indepen- 
dence with  which  he  maintained  the  views  he  had  delib- 
erately formed  and  believed  to  be  right.  If  any  discrimi- 
nation is  to  be  made  as  to  the  value  of  his  opinions,  those 
in  which  he  enforced  the  great  cardinal  principles  of  equity 
jurisprudence  will,  it  is  believed,  be  most  highly  esteemed 
by  the  profession.  No  one  could  have  discharged  the 
duties  of  his  high  office  with  greater  zeal  and  industry  and 
a  loftier  integrity. 

While  absolutely  free  from  all  ostentation  or  pretence  of 
any  kind,  and  caring  nothing  for  the  externals  of  office,  he 
had  a  just  sense  of  the  dignity  of  the  tribunal  over  which 
he  so  long  and  so  ably  presided.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
his  nature  was  vehement  and  passionate,  but  he  had  sub- 
dued it,  and  though  often  provoked,  it  is  believed  that  he 
seldom  or  never  spoke  harshly  of  any  one.  In  his  friend- 
ships he  was  sincere  and  zealous,  of  a  warm  and  generous 
heart,  and  a  most  gentle  and  devoted  husband,  father, 
and  son. 


12  JUDGE  R.   C.   L.   MOMCURB. 

From  early  manhood  Judge  Moncure  was  an  earnest 
member  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  Indeed,  the  corner- 
stone of  his  reputation  as  a  man,  a  lawyer,  and  judge  was 
his  Christian  character,  manifested  by  his  love  to  God  and 
his  neighbor,  consistent  always — forgetful  never.  He  had 
an  ever-present  sense,  that  as  one  of  the  chief  magistrates 
of  Virginia,  he  was  a  ruler  as  well  as  a  law-giver,  and  was 
always  mindful  of  the  sacred  injunction  that  "He  that 
ruleth  over  men  must  be  just,  ruling  in  the  fear  of  God." 

We  do  not  mourn  for  him  as  one  stricken  down  in  the 
midst  of  his  usefulness,  for  we  know  that  the  ravages  of 
disease  had  made  life  a  burden  too  heavy  to  bear;  that  he 
was  at  the  end  of  his  pilgrimage — on  the  very  bank  of  the 
river — awaiting  the  last  summons.  He  had  kept  the  faith, 
and  was  ready  to  be  delivered. 

The  loss  of  such  a  man  at  any  period  is  a  calamity  that 
all  good  men  must  deplore,  but  in  these  times  the  blow 
falls  most  heavily.  It  is  our  duty  to  take  care  that  we  and 
those  who  come  after  us  do  not  lose  the  benefit  of  so  pure 
and  spotless  a  life.  We  cannot  willingly  let  die  the  mem- 
ory of  such  virtue  and  excellence  as  that  which  dignified 
and  adorned  the  life  of  our  loved  and  venerated  friend  and 
brother. 

Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  is  but  a  just  tribute  of  respect  and  admi- 
ration to  the  eminent  ability,  profound  learning,  and  rare  private  virtues 
exhibited  in  the  long  and  distinguished  judicial  career  of  the  Hon.  Richard 
C.  L.  Moncure. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretaries  of  this  meeting  forward  a  copy  of  these 
proceedings  to  the  family  of  the  deceased,  with  the  assurance  of  our  dejep 
sympathy  with  them  in  their  bereavment. 

Resolved,  That  Robert  Ould,  Esq.,  be  requested  to  communicate  these 
proceedings  to  the  Court  of  Appeals,  and  ask  to  have  them  entered  on  the 
records,  and  that  copies  thereof  be  published  in  the  "Virginia  Law  Journal" 
and  daily  papers  of  this  city. 

Mr.  E.  G.  Booth  followed  Judge  Christian,  after  resolu- 
tions were  submitted. 


\ 


JTJDGB  R.   C.   L.   MONCUltE.  IS 

REMARKS  OF  Mr.  E.  G.  BOOTH. 

Mr.  Chairman: 

If  this  be  the  time  for  remarks,  and  if  it  be  neces- 
sary to  move  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions,  I  will  now 
say,  by  way  of  reserving  the  best  for  the  last — expecting 
many  to  succeed  me — that  though  entitled* to  the  privileges 
of  your  court,  or  through  the  United  States  courts,  I  was 
impelled  in  accepting  the  kind  invitation  to  be  present  on 
this  occasion  by  different  and  more  tender  considerations. 

I  believe,  sir,  that  of  those  committees  to  which  such 
reference  has  been  made,  selected  to  revise  the  laws  in 
1849,  and  of  which  Judge  Moncure  was  chairman,  only 
Conway  Robinson,  Wm.  M.  Ambler,  Esqs.,  and  myself 
remain.  Neither  of  the  others  being  present,  I  alone  can 
appear  as  the  representative  of  those  committees. 

He  was  really  called  and  passed  by  the  soubriquet  the 
father  of  that  committee.  I  thus  can  commingle  my  tears 
with  the  lugubrious  current  rolling  through  this  assem- 
blage in  the  loss  not  only  of  a  friend,  but  a  father.  The 
last  time  I  recollect  to  have  met  him  in  this  building, 
hearing  I  was  in  the  adjoing  room,  he  left  the  bench  and 
came  in  with  open  arms  to  embrace  me.  He  had  a  warm 
heart,  as  well  as  clear,  wise  head. 

Associated  as  he  was  on  that  committee,  with  such  giants 
as  John  M.  Patton,  Conway  Robinson,  Burr  Harrison;  Robt. 
E.  Scott,  in  strength  of  intellect  the  peer  of  all  creation,  it 
would  be  invidious  and  unnecessary  to  say  that  Judge 
Moncure  was  the  best  man  I  ever  knew,  or  the  best  judge 
or  the  best  advocate. 

But,  sir,  take  him  all  in  all,  and  in  general  combination, 
I  may  say,  without  the  fear  of  successful  contradiction, 
that  we  ne'er  or  rarely  will  look  upon  his  like  again ;  my 
distinguished  deceased  friend,  Judge  Thos.  S.  Gholson, 
occurring  to  me  as  in  the  same  category. 

Sir,  you  were  perfectly  correct  in  saying  his  whole  im- 
pulse was  from  a  sense  of  duty. 

His  seat  in  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Delegates  to  my  left, 
his  form  and  manner,  are  vivid  before  me  at  this  time, 
though  over  thirty  years  ago ;  much  more  so  than  the  pic- 
ture before  me,  as  he  arose  to  oppose  the  removal  of  the 
Legislature  from  Richmond  to  Fauquier  Springs  in  appre- 


14  JUDGE  E.   C.   L.   M0NCURE. 

hension  of  the  cholera,  and  uttered  the  solemn  words, 
"  The  path  of  duty  is  the  path  of  safely — trust  in  God !" 

Sir,  I  can  truly  say  that  in  the  eight  months  of  our  asso- 
ciation I  never  heard  an  unkind  word  or  witnessed  an 
unkind  manifestation.  I  could  write  a  hook  of  incidents 
illustrative  of  his  character,  but  fear  I  am  trespassing  on 
the  time  that  might  be  so  much  better  occupied  by  others. 
I  will  state  one  incident  so  illustrative  of  his  benignant 
disposition. 

While  the  committee  was  seated  around  a  table  in  an 
upper  room  of  the  Capitol,  some  inferior  officer  occupying 
the  position,  as  I  understood,  as  runner  for  the  Governor — 
but  regarding  it,  perhaps,  as  above  the  Governor — entered 
the  room  and  enquired  if  we  were  engaged  in  making  the 
laws  of  the  State.  He  was  answered  in  the  affirmative 
and  referred  to  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  remarking 
that  he  had  some  suggestions  to  make  connected  with  the 
duties  of  his  position,  and  enquiring  if  there  could  not  be 
some  mitigation  of  them.  At  the  end  of  each  enquiry  he 
received  the  most  pleasant,  polite  response,  "  Certainly,  sir." 
He  was  thus  encouraged  to  repeat  his  suggestions  and 
enquiries  with  the  same  response.  At  the  conclusion, 
instead  of  ordering  him  off,  Judge  Moncure  remarked  with 
the  kindest  and  blandest  manner,  "  I  suppose  you  under- 
stand that  in  thus  relieving  you  of  the  duties  of  your  office 
there  should  be  a  corresponding  reduction  of  your  salary." 
It  was  amusing  to  see  the  fellow's  change  of  countenance 
and  change  of  base — certainly  never  returning  with  sim- 
ilar interruption. 

It  seems  inscrutable  that  we  should  mourn  the  departure 
of  such  individuals  while  so  many  less  worthy  remain. 

We  read,  however,  that — 

"  Empires  decay,  and  nations  die, 
Our  hopes  to  winds  are  given, 
The  vernal  blooms  in  ruin  lie, 
Death  reigns  o'er  all  beneath  the  sky, 
There's  nothing  sure  but  Heaven." 

Sir,  your  impressive  description  of  his  death-bed  illus- 
trates the  sentiment,  "Mark  the  perfect  man  and  behold 
the  upright ;  for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace." 

Indeed,  sir,  well  may  we  enquire, 

"  Is  that  a  death  bed  where  the  Christian  lies  ? 
No,  'tis  not  his ;  'tis  death  itself  that  dies." 


JUDGE   E.    C.    L.    MONCUEE.  15 

He  had  appropriated  those  great  doctrines  of  faith, 
repentance,  Holy  Spirit,  atoning  blood,  sovereign  grace, 
substitution,  adoption,  that  make  death  and  the  grave  run 
like  cowards.  The  valley  may  be  dark  and  the  clouds 
lowering,  but  spanned  by  a  bright  bow  of  promise  dispel- 
ling all  gloom.  Sir,  how  appropriate  to  paraphrase  and 
explain  your  description,  this  desire  to  depart,  &c,  with 
the  verse — 

"  The  clouds  disperse,  tbe  light  appears, 

My  sins  are  all  forgiven, 
Triumphant  grace  has  quelled  my  fears, 
Eoll  on  thou  sun,  fly  swift  my  years, 

I'm  on  my  way  to  Heaven." 

Sir,  while  much  might  be  said  and  written,  the  whole 
may  be  summed  up  in  a  small  compass. 

"  He  was — 

But  words  are  wanting  to  say  what — 
Say  what  a  person  ought  to  be. 
And  he  was  that.'''' 

Sir,  his  sun  of  life  has  set  forever ;  but  the  bright  beams 
of  his  example  will  long  linger  on  the  horizon  to  cheer  the 
rising  youth  of  our  country  in  the  paths  of  virtue,  of  honor, 
and  renown. 

Note. — Mr.  Booth  will  make  appendix  towards  the  con- 
clusion. 


REMARKS  OF  JUDGE  WELLFORD. 

Me.  Chaieman  : 

I  offer  no  apology  for  occupying  the  attention  of  this 
large  assemblage  of  my  brethren  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of 
Virginia  for  a  brief  period.  To  most  of  them  Judge  Mon- 
cure  was  only  known  in  the  maturity  of  his  and  their  own 
lives.  I  recognize  around  me  a  few,  but  very  few,  whose 
recollections,  like  my  own,  ante-date  his  public  life  and 
reach  back  to  a  time  when  he  was  little  known  outside  of 
that  community  in  which,  except  when  called  from  home 
by  official  duty,  he  passed  his  life  from  the  cradle  to  the 


16  JUDGE    ».   C.   L.  MONCURE. 

grave.  I  was  born  and  raised  in  that  community.  He  was 
a  generation  ahead  of  me.  His  oldest  son,  now  an  hon- 
ored occupant  of  the  Bench  in  a  sister  State,  and  myself 
were  associated  in  our  first  experiences  of  life  by  ties  and 
feelings  which  time  and  distant  space  have  never  oblite- 
rated or  obscured.  Judge  Moncure,  though  some  years 
younger  than  either  my  father  or  mother,  was  their  con- 
temporary and  a  hereditary  friend  of  his  and  her  family. 

When  I  can  first  remember  him  he  was  a  comparatively 
young  man,  engaged  in  the  laborious  and  successful  prac- 
tice of  his  profession.  No  man  ever  commanded  to  a 
greater  extent  the  affectionate  confidence  and  esteem  of 
the  community  in  which  he  lived.  It  was  a  community 
whose  praise  or  censure  was  not  of  little  value.  Rich  in 
remote  traditions,  recent  memories  and  the  present  posses- 
sion of  honored  sons,  in  measuring  every  claimant  upon  its 
confidence  it  subjected  him  to  a  high  standard.  Men  and 
women  of  middle  age  in  that  community,  when  Judge 
Moncure  began  life,  detailed  in  daily  conversation  to  their 
juniors  vivid  recollections  of  their  association  in  earlier 
life  with  Washington,  and  Madison,  and  Monroe,  and 
George  Mason,  and  the  Lees,  and  Grayson,  and  John  Tay- 
lor of  Caroline,  &c,  &c.  The  homestead  which  sheltered 
the  declining  years  of  Mary  Washington  was  there.  The 
humble  office  from  which  James  Monroe  first  hung  out  his 
sign  as  a  candidate  for  practice  as  a  lawyer  was  still  stand- 
ing. Upon  the  one  side  of  the  river  the  memory  was  as  recent 
as  ours  of  the  late  war  of  an  animated  election  for  Repre- 
sentative in  Congress  in  which  the  personal  influence  of 
George  Washington  cast  the  scales  in  favor  of  Lighthorse 
Harry  Lee.  While  upon  the  other  shore  the  fathers  told 
their  sons  with  honest  pride  of  their  maiden  vote  under 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  for  James  Madison 
to  represent  them  upon  the  floor  of  Congress.  That  vene- 
rable man  was  still  living,  and  a  few  years  later  was  sum- 
moned from  his  retirement  to  close  his  official  life  as  a 
representative  of  that  same  people  in  the  memorable  Vir- 
ginia Convention  of  1829. 

When  Judge  Moncure  came  to  the  Bar  Fredericksburg 
was  the  seat,  under  the  old  Constitution  of  1776,  of  one  of 
the  four  or  five  District  Chancery  Courts  of  the  State. 
Three  of  the  five  then  judges  of  the  Court  of  Appeals 
were  residents  of  the  immediate  vicinage.    Judge  Brooke 


\ 


JUDGE  E.   C.   L.   M0NCUEE.  17 

lived  but  eight  miles  below  Fredericksburg,  Judge  Coalter 
immediately  across  the  river,  in  Judge  Moncure's  own 
county  of  Stafford,  and  Judge  Green,  who  had  spent  in 
Fredericksburg  his  active  life  as  a  practicing  lawyer,  and 
for  some  time  as  judge  of  the  District  Court  of  Chancery, 
was  living  some  twenty  or  thirty  miles  distant  in  the 
county  of  Culpeper.  The  then  circuit  judge  of  the  Fred- 
ericksburg circuit  was  William  Brockenbrough,  who  subse- 
quently became  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals.  Robert 
Stanard,  also  an  after  judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals,  was 
then  in  the  maturity  of  his  early  fame  at  the  head  of  the 
resident  Bar  of  Fredericksburg.  John  Tayloe  Lomax  was 
only  temporarily  absent  as  the  first  Professor  of  Law  in 
the  University  of  Virginia,  from  which  position  he  was 
recalled  by  the  General  Assembly  to  succeed  Judge  Brock- 
enbrough as  judge  of  the  Circuit  Court. 

The  non-resident  Bar  whose  constant  attendance  made 
names  and  faces  familiar  embraced  among  its  elder  mem- 
bers two  subsequent  judges  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court — Philip  P.  Barbour  and  Peter  V.  Daniel — and  other 
such  men  as  John  Scott  of  Fauquier,  John  S.  Barbour,  and 
Andrew  Stevenson. 

Among  Judge  Moncure's  own  contemporaries  of  the 
younger  Bar  it  suffices  to  name  John  M.  Patton,  Arthur  A. 
Morson,  the  venerable  ex-Governor  ¥m.  Smith,  Robert  E. 
Scott,  fm.  Green,  John  L.  Marye,  Lawrence  W.  Berrey, 
Thomas  B.  Barton. 

At  that  Bar  and  among  those  people  Judge  Moncure 
began  his  professional  life  without  the  advantage  of  early 
education  or  the  patronage  of  older  lawyers.  He  staked 
his  success  upon  his  worth  as  a  man,  his  capacity  for  the 
work  he  undertook,  and  his  earnest  consecration  to  that 
work  as  the  duty  of  life. 

He  succeeded.  How  well  he  succeeded  has  become  mat* 
ter  of  history  in  Virginia. 

Upon  that  point  I  need  not  dwell.  There  are  times  and 
occasions  which  are  suggestive  of  more  than  any  eloquence 
of  speech  could  equal,  and  I  do  not  mean  in  this  presence 
to  attempt  any  expression  of  my  own  appreciation  of 
Judge  Moncure's  merits  as  a  lawyer  and  a  judge.  Before 
that  Bench  from  which  he  has  these  many  years  spoken 
the  law ;  before  this  audience,  each  of  whom  have  thumbed 
the  thirty  volumes  of  Virginia  Reports  which  transmit  in 
3 


18  JUDGE   E.   C.  L.  MOKCURE. 

the  most  permanent  literature  of  this  Commonwealth  the 
results  of  his  judicial  labor,  it  would  he  idle  to  say  that 
he  was  a  great  lawyer  and  a  great  judge. 

But  Judge  Moncure  was  a  great  lawyer  and  judge  less 
from  native  talent  and  acquired  learning,  eminent  as  they 
were,  than  from  the  force  of  personal  character  as  a  good 
man  in  principle  and  in  action. 

His  head  was  always  under  the  domination  of  a  heart 
which  recognized  his  obligations  to  God  and  to  man,  and 
accepted  as  the  standard  of  his  own  life  the  golden  rule  of 
doing  as  he  would  be  done  by.  He  earnestly  believed  that 
the  limit  of  human  authority  in  the  Legislative  Depart- 
ment was  to  order,  and  in  the  Judicial  and  Executive  De- 
partments to  enforce  between  man  and  man,  in  all  the  re- 
lations of  life,  the  observance  of  that  cardinal  principle. 

Upon  that  theory  he  practiced  at  the  Bar  and  he  spoke 
from  the  Bench,  and  the  only  reproach  which  I  have  ever 
heard  suggested  upon  his  long  judicial  career  was  that  in 
his  honest,  purpose  to  command  from  every  suitor  before 
him  strict  and  even  justice  proportioned  to  the  facts  of  the 
case,  he  may  sometimes  have  weakened  the  force  of  tech- 
nical rules  and  precedent  cases. 

Judge  Moncure's  life  was  spent  in  the  labors  of  his  pro- 
fession. He  was  not  unfrequently  tempted  to  enter  the 
political  field  with  assurances  of  promotion  and  success, 
which  would  have  diverted  the  current  of  almost  any  other 
man's  life.  But  he  steadfastly  refused  the  temptation. 
His  connection  with  political  life  was  limited  to  a  brief 
period  of  service  in  the  General  Assembly,  mainly  for  the 
purpose  of  assisting  in  the  formation  of  the  first  Code  of 
Virginia,  and  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1849. 

But  no  man  ever  felt  a  deeper  or  profounder  interest  in 
political  affairs.  His  opinions  upon  every  question  of  po- 
litical policy  were  always  of  the  most  pronounced  charac- 
ter, and  whenever  occasion  required  or  justified  their  ex- 
pression, Ms  voice  never  bore  an  uncertain  sqund.  He  was 
an  earnest  patriot  and  intensely  a  Virginian.  His  emigrant 
ancestors  had  found  their  homes  among  her  people,  and 
nothing  which  affected  her  honor  or  her  interest  was  a 
matter  of  indifference  to  him. 

He  cherished  her  past,  he  was  jealous  of  her  present, 
and  in  her  darkest  hours  looked  with  hope  and  confidence 
to  her  future.    No  son  of  hers  was  ever  more  loyal  to  the 


JUDGE   R.    C.    L.    MONCURE.  19 

mother  that  bore  Mm,  and  never  had  mother  a  son  in  whom 
she  had  better  cause  to  feel  an  honest  pride.  The  soil  of 
Virginia  is  rich  in  honored  dust,  but  her  great  bosom  never 
opened  to  receive  a  form  which  tabernacled  a  soul  more 
earnestly  consecrated  to  her  in  life  than  when  the  sods  of 
his  native  Stafford  rattled  upon  the  coffin  of  Richard  C. 
L.  Moncure. 


R.  D.  Ward,  Esq.,  made  the  following  remarks  : 

REMARKS  OF  Mr.  WARD. 

Mr.  President  : 

I  desire  to  add  my  humble  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  a  man  whom  I  have  known  for  forty  years,  and  who  by 
many  acts  of  disinterested  kindness  to  me  during  that  long 
period  I  know  was  my  friend. 

The  members  of  the  Bench  and  the  Bar  of  the  State  have 
assembled  to  commemorate  the  death  of  Judge  Richard 
C.  L.  Moncure,  late  President  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Appeals  of  Virginia.  When  such  a  man  dies,  the  public 
looks  for  and  his  life  deserves  more  than  a  mere  passing 
notice.  He  possessed  a  character  so  worthy  of  emulation 
and  example  to  all,  and  discharged  so  many  and  such  im- 
portant public  trusts  for  a  long  life,  that  some  account  of 
them  will  be  interesting  and  beneficial. 

Richard  C.  L.  Moncure  was  born  in  the  county  of  Staf- 
ford in  the  year  1805,  of  highly  respectable  and  honest 
parentage.  His  father,  Col.  John  Moncure,  held  an  office 
under  the  United  States  Government,  was  a  man  of  large 
possessions  and  much  given  to  hospitality,  his  house  being 
all  the  time  full  of  guests.  He  died  when  Richard  was 
only  three  years  of  age,  and  his  fortune  had  melted  away 
and  after  his  death  it  realized  for  his  children  almost  noth- 
ing. Richard  was  left  to  the  care  of  his  mother,  Miss 
Alice  Gaskins,  of  Northumberland,  with  nothing  but  his 
own  talents,  perseverance  and  industry  to  make  his  way 
in  the  world.  He  had  no  other  school  advantages  than 
those  furnished  by  an  old  field  school  in  the  county  of 


20  JUDGE  R.   C.   L.   MONCURE. 

Stafford,  which  he  attended  for  three  years,  and  a  school 
of  higher  grade  in  the  village  of  Falmouth,  which  he  at- 
tended for  one  year.     When  about  thirteen  years  of  age 
he  removed  to  Falmouth  to  live  with  his  brother,  who  was 
sheriff  of  the  county,  and  while  with  him  he  assisted  him 
and  "borrowed  law  books  from  lawyers  in  that  village  and 
in  Fredericksburg,  which  he  read  during  his  time  of  leisure 
from   his  regular  pursuits.     In  this  way  he  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  law,  and  in  1825  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Bar.    He  commenced  practice  in  Falmouth,  and  in  one 
year  thereafter,  when  only  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he 
was  appointed  Attorney  for  the  Commonwealth  for  that 
county.     In  the  same  year  he  was  elected  to  the  Legisla- 
ture from  that  county,  and  he  served  in  that  body  five 
sessions.     When  just  arrived  at  age  he  married  Miss  Mary 
C.  Conway,  an  estimable  lady,  who  was  his  life-long  com- 
panion and  still  survives  him.     He  was  a  member  of  the 
Constitutional  Convention  of  18  49-'50,  and  while  a  mem- 
ber of  that  body  he  was  appointed  by  the  Legislature  one 
of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Appeals  of  'Vir- 
ginia, on  the  bench  of  which  he  has  remained  until  his 
death  (except  during  the  years  of  reconstruction),  a  period 
of  over  thirty  years.     Thus  from  youth  to  old  age  his  life 
has  been  spent  in  the  service  of  his  State  in  the  discharge 
of  the  most  important  and  honorable  duties  which  can  be 
imposed  upon  a  citizen.     In  all  her  annals  no  official  of  the 
Commonwealth  ever  performed  the   duties  of  his  office 
with  more   conscientious  fidelity  or  with  more  constant 
effort  to  do  his  whole  duty.     The  measure  of  his  success 
is  seen  in  his  labor  in  the  revision  of  the  laws  and  every- 
where upon  the  pages  of  Grattan's  Eeports,  and  its  com- 
pleteness is  acknowledged  in  the  respect  and  veneration 
in  which  he  is  held  by  the  whole  Bar  of  the  State  as  well 
as  all  her  people.     The  work  of  the  revision  of  the  laws 
was  one  not  only  of  great  importance,  but  it  required  a 
vast  amount  of  thought  and  labor.     In  1846  the  General 
Assembly  passed  an  act  appointing  John  M.  Patton  and 
Conway  Eobinson,  Esq_s.,  to  revise  and  digest  the  civil 
code.  It  was  made  their  duty  to  revise  all  the  civil  statutes 
then  in  force,  and  to  report  to  the  General  Assembly  which 
of  the  general  statutes  ought  and  which  ought  not  to  re- 
main in  force,  with  drafts  of  such  bills  as  might  seem  to 
them  ought  to  be  passed.  The  revisors  finished  their  work 


JUDGE   K.    C.    L.   MONCURE.  21 

in  1849,  having  bestowed  upon  it  their  most  careful  con- 
sideration which  their  training  and  abilily  as  eminent 
lawyers  enabled  them  to  do.  They  made  their  reports  to 
the  Legislature,  who  referred  them  to  the  joint  committee 
of  the  two  Houses,  which  was  composed  of  the  following 
members  :  On  the  part  of  the  House  of  Delegates — Messrs. 
Moncure,  Scott,  Harrison,  Conway,  Whittle,  Smith,  and 
Booth ;  and  on  the  part  of  the  Senate — Messrs.  Thompson, 
Witcher,  Sloan,  Kinney,  and  Ambler.  Judge  Moncure  was 
made  chairman  of  the  joint  committee,  and  the  labor 
which  he  especially,  as  well  as  others  of  the  committee, 
performed  was  continuous  and  exacting.  Owing  to  the 
prevalence  of  cholera  at  Richmond  the  General  Assembly 
sat  at  the  Fauquier  White  Sulphur  Springs,  and  it  was  at 
that  delightful  spot  that  the  labor  of  the  committee  was 
performed.  It  was  employed  in  examining  the  revisors' 
reports  and  conferring  with  them,  and  making  such  amend- 
ments thereto  as  they  deemed  proper.  Judge  Moncure 
bent  his  whole  energies  and  gave  all  his  legal  experience 
and  learning  to  this  work.  In  the  committee  and  in  the 
House  ef  Delegates  he  took  a  leading  part  in  the  discus- 
sions of  the  various  bills  which  were  reported.  The  whole 
work  of  the  revisors  and  of  the  Committee  of  Revision  re- 
sulted in  the  Code  of  1860,  every  page  of  which  is  stamped 
with  the  labor  and  learning  of  this  distinguished  jurist. 
In  addition  to  the  prominent  part  which  Judge  Moncure 
took  in  perfecting  the  civil  laws  of  the  Commonwealth, 
he,  with  Messrs.  Scott  of  Fauquier,  Harrison  of  Loudoun, 
Mosby  of  Campbell,  and  Mayo  of  Richmond  city,  in  1848 
framed,  and  the  General  Assembly  passed,  the  act  of 
March  14th,  1848,  to  reduce  into  one  the  several  acts  con- 
cerning crimes  and  punishments  and  proceedings  in  crimi- 
nal cases,  which,  later,  was  substantially  accepted  and 
reported  by  the  revisors,  and  became  the  criminal  law  of 
the  State. 

During  his  long  service  as  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Appeals,  Judge  Moncure  delivered  the  opinion  of  the 
Court  and  dissenting  opinions  in  about  400  cases,  com- 
prising about  3,000  pages  of  Grattan's  Reports.  These 
opinions  are  generally  indicative  of  a  clear  understanding 
of  the  cases,  expressed  in  apt  language,  and  lay  down 
sound  principles  of  law.  They  have  received  the  sanction 
and  approbation  of  the  profession,  and  no  counsel  ever 


22  JUDGE    E.   C.   L.  M0NCUKE. 

heard  Judge  Moncure  read  an  opinion,  even  though  he  de- 
cided his  case  against  him  and  he  might  have  thought  at 
the  time  that  he  was  wrong,  ever  doubted  his  integrity 
and  honesty  of  purpose,  and  after  a  while  did  not  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  was  right.  Virginia  may  have  had 
other  judges  whose  legal  learning  and  scholastic  training 
was  greater,  whose  powers  of  mind  were  stronger  and  more 
comprehensive,  whose  treatment  of  judicial  questions  was 
more  profound  and  whose  language  was  more  concise  and 
pointed,  but  among  the  long  line  of  distinguished  jurists 
that  have  adorned  her  Bench  not  one  can  be  found  who 
possessed  more  conscientiousness  in  the  discharge  of  his 
whole  official  duty  or  used  more  diligent  and  industrious 
efforts  to  perform  it.  Of  all  the  public  men  of  the  State 
that  I  have  known  for  the  last  forty  years,  there  is  not  one 
who  throughout  his  whole  career  has  exhibited  greater 
zeal,  earnestness  and  conscientious  industry  to  discharge 
his  public  duties.  I  know  of  many  little  incidents  which 
beautifully  illustrate  the  child-like  simplicity  and  purity 
of  his  character ;  but  I  will  relate  only  one,  which  shows 
his  scrupulous  conscientiousness  in  regard  to  the  expendi- 
ture of  public  money.  On  one  occasion  some  years  ago, 
with  the  stationery  I  usually  purchased  for  the  court,  I 
bought  knives  for  the  judges.  When  I  presented  one  to 
Judge  Moncure  he  declined  to  take  it,  saying  his  old  knife, 
which  he  had  had  for  twenty  years,  would  last  as  long  as 
he  lived.  I  suggested  to  him  that  he  had  better  take  the 
knife,  that  it  would  just  suit  to  trim  his  .trees  at  home, 
and  that  surely  he  should  feel  justified  in  taking  from  the 
State  one  knife  in  twenty  years,  when  the  members  of  the 
Legislature  and  other  State  officials  got  them  every  year. 
He  consented  at  last  and  put  the  knife  in  his  pocket.  The 
next  morning  when  he  came  to  the  court-room  he  said  to 
me  :  "  Mr.  Ward,  during  the  night  I  have  been  thinking 
much  about  the  knife  you  gave  me,"  and  with  his  old 
wornout  one  in  his  hand  said,  "  Take  it  back  to  the  store 
from  which  you  got  it ;  I  have  concluded  to  use  my  old 
knife  the  balance  of  my  life,  and  do  not  feel  satisfied  to  put 
the  State  to  the  expense  of  a  new  one  for  me  when  I  can 
do  without  it."  What  a  contrast  to  the  conduct  of  many 
of  our  public  officials  of  the  present  time !  How  advan- 
tageous to  the  country  it  would  be  if  they  were  inspired 
with  the  sentiment  which  pushed  the  old  Judge  to  so 


JUDGE  E.   C.   L.   MOMCUBE.  23 

overmuch  scrupulousness.  For  the  past  twelve  years, 
during  which  time  I  have  occupied  an  humble  position  in 
this  court,  I  have  observed  the  veneration  and  love  enter- 
tained for  him  by  his  brethren  of  the  Bench,  as  well  as 
the  honor  and  respect  felt  for  him  by  the  Bar  of  the  State, 
and  when,  in  the  last  year  of  his  declining  health,  I  called 
on  the  members  of  the  Bar  of  Richmond  for  the  means  to 
purchase  yonder  excellent  portrait  which  now  hangs  on  the 
wall  of  this  court-room  to  remind  us  of  the  living  form 
which  we  have  seen  so  often  on  that  bench,  and  which  will 
hang  there,  I  trust,  through  all  time,  to  encourage  future 
generations  of  lawyers  to  study,  admire  and  emulate  the 
sublime  character  of  the  man  and  judge,  I  had  no  diffi- 
culty in  getting  the  money,  but  I  had  to  put  the  subscrip- 
tion quota  very  low  in  order  that  all  might  have  the 
privilege  of  subscribing,  and  many  lawyers  outside  of  the 
city  expressed  to  me  their  earnest  desire  to  subscribe.  It 
was  put  there  without  his  consent  or  knowledge  in  his 
lifetime,  and  when  he  was  absent  from  the  city.  When 
the  old  Judge  first  looked  upon  it  and  was  told  its  history, 
unshed  tears  stood  in  his  eyes  and  his  heart  swelled  with 
emotions  inexpressible  as  he  gazed  upon  the  patent,  lasting 
tribute  of  the  respect,  esteem  and  honor  thus  bestowed 
upon  him  by  his  professional  brethren  who  knew  him  so 
well  and  loved  him  so  much. 

Alas  !  Judge  Moncure  has  gone  from  earth.  We  will  see 
him  no  more  in  this  forum,  no  more  in  the  paths  he  so 
often  trod ;  but  yet  he  still  lives,  and  will  continue  to  live 
so  long  as  men  delight  to  contemplate  the  deeds  of  an 
honest  life,  of  a  wise  counsellor,  of  an  upright  judge  and 
a  Christian  gentleman.  He  still  lives  in  his  character  and 
his  example — an  inestimable  legacy  to  his  professional 
brethren  if  they  will  but  rightly  appreciate  it  and  emulate 
it.  He  lived  a  worthy,  true  life,  and  he  died  triumphant 
in  the  Christian  faith,  and  angels  have  borne  his  immortal 
spirit  to  that  glorious  City  of  God  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens. 

It  is  but  natural  for  his  friends  and  companions  to  sor- 
row and  grieve  when  such  a  man  departs,  but  let  us  rejoice 
that  he  has  obtained  so  great  a  reward,  and  let  us  all  try 
so  to  live  that  we  may  secure  a  similar  one. 


24  JUDGE  B.   C.   L.    MONCURE. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  letters  and  some  of  the 
speeches  and  documents  of  the  Bar  meeting  could  not  "be 
conveniently  procured  for  this  edition.  Since  it  was  closed 
letters  have  been  received  from  Judge  Sheffey,  Judge 
Watson,  Samuel  Price,  John  A.  Thompson,  Wm.  M.  Bur- 
well,  Esqs.,  all  breathing  the  same  exalted  devotion  and 
appreciation,  and  thus  from  one  learn  all.  Mr.  Burwell's 
gives  assurance  that  the  mantle  of  a  noble  sire  has  fallen 
on  a  noble  son,  now  of  Louisiana. 


REMARKS  OF  JUDGE  OULD 

Remarks  of  Judge  Ould  in  presenting  the  resolutions 
of  the  Bar  meeting  to  the  Court  of  Appeals : 

May  it  please  the  Court : 

On  the  first  day  of  this  term  a  large  number  of  the 
members  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  the  State  assembled  in 
this  room  to  pay  their  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  late 
president  of  this  court,  who,  in  the  interval  of  its  sessions, 
at  his  own  home  and  in  the  midst  of  a  loving  household, 
was  released  from  the  labors  of  a  long  and  eventful  life. 
I  was  instructed  by  that  meeting  to  present  the  memorial 
and  resolutions  then  adopted  to  this  honorable  court,  over 
which  he  so  long  presided,  with  a  request  that  they  be 
entered  on  its  records. 

The  death  in  office  of  the  president  of  the  highest  court 
of  the  Commonwealth  is  an  event  of  such  moment  that  his 
survivors  can  well  turn  aside  from  the  judicial  routine  and 
perpetuate  on  their  records  the  memory  of  one  who,  for  so 
long  a  time,  was  their  honored  chief  and  friend. 

Judge  Moncure,  in  early  life,  was  compelled  to  struggle 
with  the  privations  of  poverty.  But  he  was  born  of  a  sturdy 
stock ;  and  to  one  who  meets  such  difficulties  with  the 
spirit  which  he  at  once  displayed,  they  are  not  a  real  dis- 
advantage. Most  of  the  world's  worthies  have  had  this 
training,  and  by  it  were  made  more  independent,  more 


JUDGE  R.   C.   L.   MONCURE.  25 

"buoyant,  more  self-reliant,  more  athletic  in  mind  and  body, 
and  thus  braver  and  stronger  in  the  subsequent  battles  of 
life  than  their  brothers  reared  in  luxury  and  ease. 

Although  Judge  Moncure  was  called  to  the  bench  at  a 
comparatively  early  age,  he  had  previously  won  great  dis- 
tinction at  the  bar  in  a  section  of  the  State  prolific  in  able 
lawyers.  His  studious  habits  and  pure  life  gave  him  the 
confidence  of  the  people,  and  they  ever  watched  his  course 
with  interest  and  followed  his  fortunes  with  their  affection. 
He  had  all  the  qualities  to  make  him  a  noted  man  in  the 
community,  zeal  for  the  cause  he  espoused,  and  strong  com- 
mon sense,,  which,  a  distinguished  judge  has  aptly  called, 
the  great  solvent  of  legal  perplexity.  Nature  also  had 
built  his  body  on  a  breadth  and  strength  of  plan  which 
capacitated  him  for  great  labor  and  endurance.  His  tri- 
umphs in  his  profession  were  not  confined  to  the  local  bars 
of  his  section.  He  distinguished  himself  in  arguments 
before  this  Court,  when  it  was  not  common  for  local  coun- 
sel to  follow  their  causes  to  this  tribunal.  One  of  the  most 
noted  of  them  was  in  Yerby  v.  Lynch,  3  Grattan,  which  was 
made  memorable  by  reason  of  its  connection  with  the 
death  of  Judge  Stanard,  who  was  stricken  with  a  mortal 
illness  while  writing  an  opinion  in  that  case,  in  which  he 
paid  a  high  compliment  to  Judge  Moncure's  argument. 

Judge  Moncure  began  his  judicial  career  in  April,  1851, 
and  with  but  little  intermission  continued  on  the  Court  of 
Appeals,  either  as  Associate  Justice  or  its  President,  until 
the  time  of  his  death.  His  published  opinions  are  found 
in  twenty-eight  volumes  of  the  Virginia  Reports,  running 
from  7th  Grattan  to  1st  Matthews,  inclusive,  and  embracing 
a  period  from  April,  1851,  to  November,  1880.  During  the 
greater  part  of  this  time  he  was  the  President  of  the  Court, 
and  it  can  be  truly  said  of  him  that  his  wisdom  and  purity 
had  no  little  to  do  in  inspiring  the  public  with  confidence 
in  its  decisions.  During  this  judicial  career  he  analyzed 
and  mastered  the  most  difficult  questions  of  jurisprudence, 
and  presented  them  with  clearness  and  precision.  Some 
of  these  subjects  were  fields  which  he  had  scarcely  ever 
traversed  in  his  practice  at  the  bar,  such,  for  instance,  as 
commercial  securities,  yet  his  great  industry  and  accuracy 
soon  made  him  master  of  all  that  was  essential  to  be 
known.  In  treating  obstruse  matters,  he  was  free  from  all 
pedantry  and  affection  of  learning,  and  in  the  noble  func- 
4 


26  JUDGE   -R.   C.   L.   MONCUHE. 

tion  of  construing  constitutions  and  statutes,  of  determin- 
ing the  controversies  of  men,  of  disentangling  complicated 
questions  of  law  and  fact,  and  reducing  them  into  harmony, 
he  was  patient,  industrious,  impartial,  bringing  to  his  high 
office  all  the  graces  of  a  conscientious  spirit.  If,  he  com- 
mitted errors  by  inattention,  want  of  time  or  precon- 
ceived opinions,  it  is  a  wonder,  in  his  long  judicial  life,  he 
did  not  make  more.  In  the  controversies  which  come  for 
judicial  determination  before  courts,  it  must  needs  be  that 
there  are  matters  of  difference  that  are  almost  equally  bal- 
anced, where  some  parts  of  the  record  are  apparently  for 
one  party  and  others  are  against  him ;  and  in  such  cases, 
common  to  all  courts,  it  would  be  too  high  a  praise  to  be 
given  to  any  judge,  that  he  had  always  decided  correctly. 
No  man  would  have  been  prompter  than  Judge  Moncure  to 
deny  any  general  infallibility  on  his  part,  earnest  as  he 
was  in  almost  every  case  to  insist  upon  the  view  which  he 
had  maturely  adopted.  That  he  did  hold  to  such  opinions 
in  the  face  of  any  opposition  cannot  be  denied.  The  second 
opinion  which  he  delivered  in  this  Court,  that  in  Dabney 
v.  Kennedy,  7th  Grattan,  was  one  of  dissent  from  the  other- 
wise unanimous  judgment  of  the  Court,  consisting  of  Cabell, 
Allen,  Baldwin,  Daniel  and  himself,  when  he  was  junior, 
both  in  years  and  term  of  service,  to  all  of  them.  He  had 
such  independence  of  character  that  dissent  from  the  ma- 
jority of  his  brethren  was  not  an  uncommon  occurrence  in 
his  judicial  life. 

This  self-reliance  of  Judge  Moncure  was  also  shown  by 
the  fearless  way  in  which  he  walked  through  the  dark 
places  of  the  law,  where  the  light  of  precedent  did  not 
reach  him.  Some  of  the  best  opinions  he  ever  delivered 
fall  under  this  class.  But  when  he  was  required  to  blaze 
his  own  way,  he  never  moved  rashly  and  hastily,  but  al- 
ways with  circumspection.  If  direct  precedent  could  not 
be  found,  he  followed  what  was  its  best  substitute,  the 
analogies  of  the  law,  Yet,  it  cannot  be  altogether  denied, 
that  while  he  held  that  the  artificial  reason  and  judgment 
of  the  law  ought  to  come  into  play  in  deciding  causes,  as 
well  as  natural  reason,  still,  he  had  such  a  predominating 
sense  of  justice  that  he  was  sometimes  led  to  the  very 
verge  of  the  law  in  his  effort  to  decide  a  case  upon  its  par- 
ticular right. 

Of  course,  we  of  the  Bar  know  nothing  of  Judge  Mon- 


JUDGE   B.    C.   L.    MONCUEE.  27 

cure's  conduct  in  conference,  but  all  of  us  can  speak  of  the 
kindness  of  his  manner  in  leading  the  public  business  of 
the  court,  of  his  gentleness  in  imposing  any  restraint  when- 
ever it  was  necessary,  of  his  noble  courtesy,  of  his  patience 
in  hearing  counsel,  even  when  they  were  extravagant. 
How  often  have  we  seen  him  as  much  out  of  kindness  to 
the  advocate  as  from  a  desire  that  the  case  might  be  thor- 
oughly sifted,  almost  fain  doubts,  or  put  questions  which 
would  lead  counsel  to  the  pith  of  the  case.  In  the  same 
spirit  he  adopted  the  opinion  of  Lord  Kenyon,  that  it  was 
"  the  duty  of  every  court  to  administer  justice  as  well  as 
could  be  between  litigating  parties,  and  that  another  and 
not  less  material  duty  was  to  satisfy  these  parties  that  the 
whole  case  had  been  examined  and  considered."  Acting 
upon  this  view,  it  may  be,  and  doubtless  is  true,  that  some 
of  his  opinions,  especially  in  his  later  years,  are  too  much 
in  detail  and  too  prolix  in  the  discussion  of  facts  when 
tested  by  the  best  models;  but  this  very  natural  fault 
grew  out  of 

NO    DESIEE   TO    DISPLAY, 

but  resulted  from  a  purpose  to  show  to  all  interested  in  the 
controversy  that  he  had  not  overlooked  any  material  fact. 
Judge  Moncure  never  turned  out  of  his  way  for  figures  of 
speech  or  rhetorical  adornment.  He  clearly  stated,  in.  a 
transparent  style  and  in  vigorous  words,  what  he  clearly 
saw,  and  with  that  was  content.  He  made  no  claim  to 
classical  taste  or  acquirement,  or  to  any  superior  literary 
excellence.  Indeed,  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  his  foren- 
sic efforts  he  displayed  but  little  of  what  is  called  in  these 
days  oratory,  and  in  his  judicial  opinions  the  student  who 
seeks  the  classic  eloquence  of  Lord  Stowell  or  the  polished 
rhetoric  of  Chief -Justice  Gibson  will  be  disappointed.  He 
was  too  direct  and  too  impetuous  for  any  such  finery. 

THE   FULL   STEEAM 

of  his  thought  never  loitered  on  its  way  to  make  eddies, 
but  rushed  directly  to  its  end.  So  intent  was  he  about  this 
that  if  any  one  had  brought  against  him,  with  any  degree 
of  truth,  the  accusation  that  he  had  preferred  ornament  to 
substance,  he  would  have  felt  that  he  had  been  untrue  to 
his  great  office.  He  never  thought  of  display,  and  seemed 
unconscious  that  he  had  the  power  to  make  any. 


28  JUDGE    R.    C.   L.    MONCURE. 

One  of  his  judicial  characteristics  was  his  devotion  to 
his  native  Commonwealth.  It  was  almost  a  passion  with 
him.  In  every  controversy  in  which  her  honor,  her  inter- 
ests, or  her  prosperity  was  concerned,  he  came  to  the  front 
as  her  guardian  and  protector  and  with  fervor  that  sprung 
from  instinct,  and  was  made  more  intense  by  habit.  It 
made  no  difference  whether  it  was  an  assault  by  bad  men 
from  within  upon  her  penal  statutes,  or  an  encroachment 
from  without  on  her  dignity  or  honor,  he  stood  at  the  gate 
"  with  flaming  sword,  which  turned  every  way."     He  was 

A   MAGISTRATE   OF   DAUNTLESS    COURAGE — 

a  courage  which,  as  Carlyle  says  of  Henry  Irving,  was  not 
"pugnacious  nor  ferocious,  but  as  of  the  generous  war- 
horse,  gentle  in  strength,  yet  that  laughs  at  the  shaking  of 
the  spear."  No  terror  or  force  could  overawe  him.  He 
would  have  gone  to  the  stake  rather  than  recant  a  judg- 
ment in  which  he  had,  to  his  own  satisfaction,  established 
a  right  or  defended  a  principle. 

In  thus  depicting  Judge  Moncure's  judicial  life  I  have 
not  indulged  in  what  is  so  natural,  but  yet  too  common, 
indiscriminate  praise.  No  human  figure  is  all  of  gold,  and 
I  have  not  pretended  to  present  him  as  such.  But  I  do 
mean  to  say,  and  perhaps  no  higher  eulogium  could  be  pro- 
nounced, that  if  he  could  have  had  an  enemy,  who  would 
undertake  to  write  his  biography  with  any  regard  to  truth, 
he  would  be  compelled,  in  spite  of  any  private  malice,  to 
present  a  figure  of  unblemished  integrity,  purity,  and 
inflexible  purpose  to  do  right,  as  of  a  man  living  con- 
sciously under  his  Maker's  eye. 

Turning  from  his  judicial  life,  I  desire  to  speak  a  few 
words  of  him 

AS   A   MAN. 

What  is  ordinarily  called  pleasure  had  but  very  little 
charm  for  him.  He  took  greater  delight  in  disentangling 
a  record,  or  in  following  the  run  of  a  principle  through  the 
books,  than  he  could  have  felt  as  an  honored  guest  in  a 
king's  palace.  He  was  wonderfully  simple  and  domestic 
in  his  tastes,  preferring  the  routine  of  his  own  home  and 
the  attractions  of  his  household  to  the  hospitality  and 
feasts  of  his  most  valued  friends. 


JUDGE   R.    C.    L.    MONCURE.  29 

So  direct  was  his  mind,  and  so  intent  was  he  about  the 
duties  and  issues  of  life,  that  he  never  perceived  a  jest,  un- 
less he  was  led  up  to  it  and  elaborate  explanation  made  ; 
but  yet,  without  contradiction,  no  soul  was  more  genial 
than  his,  no  one's  laughter  more  hearty,  and  no  man's  sym- 
pathies more  quickly  kindled.  He  had  a  genuine  urbanity' 
and  delightful  unreserve  which  gave  a  charm  and  beauty 
to  his  daily  life. 

But  the  most  distinguishing  characteristic  of  Judge  Mon- 
cure  was  his  simplicity.  It  might  be  called  massive,  not 
only  in  the  materials  of  the  structure,  but  also  in  its  style 
and  order.  And  that  simplicity  was  made  more  noble  and 
beautiful  by  reason  of  his  unconsciousness  of  the  fact.  If 
he  had  speculated  or  built  upon  it,  or,  indeed,  if  he  had 
been  aware  of  it,  it  would  have  lost  much  of  its  charm.  It 
attended  him  as  closely  as  his  shadow — nay,  more  so,  for 
that  follows,  while  the  grace  to  which  I  have  referred  sat 
upon  him  like  a  glory.  It  was  a  characteristic  as  well 
known  to  all  the  classes  of  the  people  with  whom  he  had 
intercourse  as  to  his  brethren  of  the  Bench  and  Bar.  It 
was  never  thrown  off.  He  could  not  have  done  so  had  he 
tried.  I  have  dwelt  thus  long  on  this  trait  of  his,  because 
it  is  so  rare  with  those  who  have  had  much  to  do  with  men 
and  their  affairs,  public  and  private,  and  still  rarer  to  be 
seen  anywhere  in  such  unconscious  beauty. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  all  I  have  said,  I  have  heard  that 
in  his  youth  and  early  manhood  he  was  of  hot  temper  and 
easily  provoked  to  wrath.  We  who'  have  seen  him  on  the 
bench,  not  frequently  perhaps,  but  now  and  then,  when  he 
was  delivering  ore  tenus  a  dissenting  opinion  in  a  case  where 
he  had  caught  fire,  can  well  understand  how  this  statement 
can  be  true. 

HIS    TEMPERAMENT    WAS    ARDENT, 

and  his  nature  fervid,  and  on  occasions,  even  in  his  later 
years,  he  would  break  into  vehement  speech.  But  however 
he  might  kindle,  there  was  never  malice  or  any  unchari- 
tableness  in  these  utterances,  and  he  was  never  moved  even 
to  them,  unless  he  believed  that  some  great  and  valuable 
principle  of  the  law  had  been  disregarded,  or  that  some 
personal  right  had  been  invaded. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  Judge  Moncure,  having 
become  in  early  life  a  Christian  disciple,  his  volcanic  na- 


30  JUDGE   R.    C.    L.    MONCURE. 

ture  was  presided  over  and  controlled  by  a  supernatural 
grace — by  a  divine  power  which  stooped  from  the  heavens 
and  lifted  him  above  his  natural  plane.  His  faith  was 
simple  and  reverent — not  a  cloudy  abstraction,  nor  even  a 
succession  of  gleams  followed  by  darkness,  but  something 
that  glowed  with  the  celestial  radiance  of  a  perfect  day. 
Perhaps  no  man  that  ever  lived  was  more  absolutely  free 
from  doubt  or  indecision  as  to  the  matters  which  pertained 
to  his  lasting  peace  than  Judge  Moncure.  He  put  his  hand 
into  that  of  the  Eternal  Father  with  all  the  filial  trust  and 
confidence  of  a  little  child,  and  thus,  far  more  than  by  his 
original  nature,  was  held  to  duty  with  all  the  precision 
with  which  gravitation  holds  a  planet  in  its  sweep. 
The  Roman  poet  says : 

"  Pallida  mors,  oequo,  pulsat  pede  pauperum  tabemas 
Regumque  tures ;" 

but  Judge  Moncure  himself,  without  a  tremor,  knocked  at 
the  door  of  Death,  not  complainingly,  or  indeed  with  any 
assertion  of  self,  but  in  reverent  submission  to  the  will  of 
God.  The  shadows  had  been  long  gathered  about  him, 
each  day  deepening  the  gloom,  and  the  plaintive  cry  was 
wrung  from  him  by  bodily  anguish  that  the  darkening  twi- 
light might  close  at  once  in  night.  But  even  in  this  the 
sensitive  soul  feared  that  he  might  show  a  lack  of  submis- 
sion to  the  divine  will.  The  release  came  in  its  appointed 
time,  welcomed  by  no  one  as  by  him — "  the  silver  cord  was 
loosed  and  the  golden  bowl  broken."  Let  us  thank  God 
that  He  gave  to  the  country  such  a  patriot,  to  the  State  such 
a  citizen,  to  the  administration  of  the  law  such  a  magis- 
trate, and  to  those  that  loved  him,  such  a  friend. 

"  Crown  me  with  flowers,"  cried  Mirabeau  in  his  last 
hour,  and  loving  friends  brought  them.  But  our  elder 
brother  needed  no  human  hands  to  bring  him  garlands,  for 

GOD   HAD   ALREADY   CROWNED  HIM, 

and  out  of  a  pure  and  noble  life  had  already  sprung  eternal 
flowers,  which  bloomed  not  only  on  earth,  but  were  glori- 
ous enough  to  be  transplanted  from  that  quiet  Stafford 
death-bed  to  the  celestial  gardens. 

Though  a  senior  to  all  of  us,  he  has  preceded  us  but  a 
little.    The  hearts  of  even  the  youngest  of  us  are  but 


JUDGE  R.   C.   L.   MONCTJRE.  31 

"muffled  drums,  beating  funeral  dirges  to  the  grave." 
Even  while  we  are  viewing  the  procession  of  the  dead,  the 
order  comes  for  us  to  fall  in.  And  now,  in  this  moment, 
when  I  am  speaking  the  last  words  which  I  will  ever  utter 
in  the  presence  of  this  Court,  as  it  is  now  formed,  I  can  ex- 
press no  better  hope  for  Bench  and  Bar  than  that  when 
our  summons  comes  we  may  receive  and  welcome  it  as  did 
our  friend  and  chief. 


judge  ROBERT  OULD 


ADDRESS  of  Rev.  Dr.  HOGE 

AT  THE 

FUNERAL  Of  Mp  ROBERT  ODLD, 

Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Sunday,  December  17th,  1882. 


The  funeral  of  Judge  Robert  Ould  took  place  from  the 
Second  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  city  at  1\  o'clock  P.  M. 
on  Sunday,  December  17th,  1882.  A  great  concourse  of 
people  were  assembled  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  the 
illustrious  deceased.  The  services  were  conducted  by  the 
Eev.  Dr.  Hoge,  assisted  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Peterkin  and  the 
Rev.  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry.  The  following  is  a  report  of  the 
remarks  made  by  Dr.  Hoge  on  the  occasion  : 

Were  a  total  stranger  to  this  city,  ignorant  of  all  that 
had  occurred  in  it  during  the  past  week,  now  to  enter  this 
church,  he  could  not  look  around  him  for  a  single  moment 
without  being  impressed  by  the  fact  that  some  event  of 
more  than  ordinary  interest  was  now  absorbing  the  minds 
and  affecting  the  hearts  of  our  people. 

This  vast  assembly,  so  hushed  and  still,  these  badges  of 
mourning,  these  tears,  not  only  of  bereaved  relatives,  but 
of  a  bereaved  community,  would  tell  him  in  a  language 
more  impressive  than  words  that  to-day  we  all  together 
constitute  one  household,  smitten  of  God  and  afflicted  and 
needing  consolation. 

It  is  not  true  that  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  a 
ready  utterance  always  comes.  There  are  times  when  the 
very  fullness  of  emotion  makes  silence  more  natural  than 

5 


34  JUDGE    EOBEET   OULD. 

speech.  When  men  stand  in  the  presence  of  appalling 
danger  their  words  are  few.  In  the  midst  of  overwhelm- 
ing sorrow  they  are  dumb.  "I  opened  not  my  month 
because  thou  didst  it."  When  God  makes  some  soul-sub- 
duing manifestation  of  himself,  he  seems  to  say,  "  Be  still, 
and  know  that  I  am  God." 

My  friends,  I  am  troubled.  Outside  the  circle  of  the 
immediate  family,  I  am  the  most  bereaved — the  chief 
mourner.  When  I  look  upon  this  great,  sorrowing  assem- 
bly, and  then  remember  whose  dust  it  is  that  this  coffin 
encloses,  I  feel  like  asking  you  to  permit  me  to  leave  this 
pulpit  and  take  my  more  appropriate  place  among  those 
who  weep  beneath  it.  "Lord  send  me  help  from  the  sanc- 
tuary, and  strengthen  me  out  of  Zion." 

It  is  not  my  custom  to  make  funeral  addresses.  If  I 
deviate  from  this  now,  it  is  because  of  the  assurance  I 
have  received  that  there  is  a  pent-up  feeling  in  the  whole 
community  that  demands  some  expression,  and  that  such 
expression  would  be  a  relief  even  to  those  most  nearly 
touched  by  this  bereavement.  I  shall  have  your  sympathy 
while  I  attempt  to  give  vent  to  these  struggling  emotions, 
and  all  the  more  if  what  I  say  is  not  so  much  a  tribute  to 
the  man,  the  friend,  the  brother,  for  whom  we  mourn,  as 
to  the  grace  of  God  which  was  magnified  in  his  life  and 
in  his  death. 

The  child  Of  eminently  pious  parents,  never  even  in  the 
days  when  the  gay  world  with  its  enticements,  its  ambi- 
tions, and  its  pleasures  most  possessed  him,  did  he  wholly 
forget  the  example,  the  prayers  and  the  instructions  of 
those  who  consecrated  him  to  God  at  his  birth. 

In  early  life  he  chose  the  profession  which  he  preferred 
to  all  others,  save  one,  which  in  later  life  he  ranked  above 
it,  and  his  choice  was  a  noble  one.  "  Our  human  laws," 
says  a  modern  writer,  "are  but  copies,  more  or  less  perfect, 
of  the  eternal  laws,  as  far  as  we  can  read  them."  Law  has 
been  called  the  perfection  of  reason.  It  is  the  visible  im- 
personation of  justice,  the  tangible  embodiment  of  right. 
It  touches  society  at  every  point ;  guards  property,  life, 
and  character ;  it  curbs  license,  protects  the  feeble,  hon- 
ors good  faith,  circumvents  fraud,  and  binds  the  turbu- 
lent in  chains.  It  secures  social  order,  shields  domestic 
happiness,  and  makes  national  prosperity  possible.  Such 
was  the  noble  profession  of  his  choice. 


JUDGE   ROBERT   OULD.  35 

How  well  lie  discharged  the  duties  of  his  high  calling, 
with  what  fearlessness,  with  what  fidelity,  with  what  suc- 
cess, will  be  told  in  another  place  ;  and  honored  will  be 
the  man  who,  at  the  command  of  Bench  and  Bar,  will 
place  on  record  for  the  instruction  of  the  profession  in  all 
coming  time  an  adequate  tribute  to  Judge  Robert  Ould,  as 
t  an  instructive  illustration  of  what  distinction  may  be  won 
when  genius,  learning,  industry,  and  personal  honor  are  the 
constituent  elements  of  success  and  the  sure  guarantees  of 
the  eminence  which  will  be  accorded  to  one  who  possesses 
these  characteristics,  by  all  the  legal  tribunals  of  this  Com- 
monwealth. 

But,  my  friends,  to-day  our  concern  is  not  with  the  lau- 
rels of  earth,  or  the  monuments  which  genius  erects  for 
itself,  but  with  the  interests  which  pertain  to  a  higher 
life,  and  with  the  judgments  which  belong  to  a  higher 
tribunal. 

The  most  pathetic  of  the  ancient  prophets  on  a  certain 
occasion,  exclaimed,  "How  is  the  strong  staff  broken  and 
the  beautiful  rod."  Manly,  physical  strength  and  the 
fairest  creations  of  human  intellect  are  frail  at  best  and 
evanescent.  "Thy  rod,  thy  staff,"  cried  one  of  the  greatest 
American  statesmen  in  a  dying  hour,  "that  is  what  I  want." 
The  staff  of  the  Lord,  our  Shepherd,'  alone  is  strong.  His 
rod,  like  that  of  Aaron,  is  the  only  one  that  buds  and  bears 
perrenial  blossoms.  All  other  dependences  are  but  as  the 
frail  web  that  the  spider  weaves  across  the  chasm.  All 
the  glory  of  man  is  but  the  flower  of  the  grass.  All  the 
posthumous  honors,  won  by  human  toil  and  talent,  bring 
no  joy  to  the  heart  which  lies  still  and  chill  in  the  coffin, 
and  all  the  music  of  the  world's  applause  cannot  penetrate 
the  dull  cold  ear  of  death.  The  honor  which  God  confers 
on  those  who  serve  him,  and  the  glory  to  which  he  sum- 
mons the  redeemed  soul,  alone  are  endearing  and  satisfy- 
ing. It  is  only  the  sweet  remembrance  of  what  God's 
grace  did  for  my  departed  friend  and  brother  that  gives 
me  comfort  to-day,  and  this  remembrance  along  gives  me 
strength  to  pay  this  tribute  of  tender  affection.  It  is  not 
of  the  jurist  that  I  would  speak,  eminent  as  he  was  in 
his  profession,  nor  of  the  man,  attractive  as  he  was  by  his 
virtues,  but  of  the  Christian,  the  servant  of  Christ,  and  for 
His  sake  the  servant  of  the  Church  he  loved. 

I  cannot  better  refer  to  the  great  and  eventful  change  in 


36  JUDGE   ROBERT   OULD. 

his  life — a  change  that  gave  a  new  direction  to  his  whole 
future — than  in  his   own  words.     On  Christmas  day,  1870, 
he  sent  me  as  a  keepsake  a  volume  recently  published  by 
a  distinguished  divine.     In  the   round,  clear  hand  which 
he  wrote,  he  covered  the  whole  of  the  first  fly-leaf  of  the 
book  with  an  inscription,  the  first  sentence  of  which  was 
this  :  "I  desire   to   record  in  this   Christmas  offering  the 
fact — the  supremest  in  my  life — that  just  one  year  ago  the  * 
Spirit  of  God  led  me   to   your  ministry.     I  do  so  in  this 
form  in  the  hope  that  it  may  the  more  readily  meet  your 
eye  in  future  days,  perhaps  when  I  am  no  more."    What 
follows  is  too  delicately  personal  for  repetition,  but  it  is  a 
grateful   record   of  the   spiritual  experiences  of  that  me- 
morial year.     From  that  day  to  this  I  have  known  him  in 
his  public   and   in  his   private   walks ;  known  him  in  his 
joys  and  sorrows ;  known  him  when  success  crowned  his 
labors  and  when  disappointment  chilled  his  hopes  ;  known 
him  when  misrepresentation  assailed  his  good  name,  and 
when  with  a  magnanimity  which   was   as  rare  as  it  was 
beautiful,  he  chose  to  suffer  in  silence,  assured  that  God  in 
his  own  good  time,  would  bring  forth  his  righteousness  as 
the  light  and  his  judgment  as  the  noonday.     I  have  known 
him  as  a  student  of  theology,  taking  it   up  after  his  con- 
version, as   he  would  a  new  treatise   on   science   or  inter- 
national law,  and  mastering  it  as  few  divines  in  the  pulpit 
have  done  ;  known  him  as  a  student  of  polemics  and  church 
government,  coming  to  an  unalterable  conclusion  as  to  the 
Scriptural  origin  of  the   creeds   and  confessions  of    the 
church  of  his  choice  ;  known  him  in  the  humble,  but  in 
his  esteem,  the  honored  office  of  superintendent  of  a  Mis- 
sion Sunday  School  in  the  suberbs  of  the  city ;  known  him 
as  a  teacher  of  a  Bible  Class  for  which  he  began  to  pre- 
pare his  lectures  on  Monday  morning  lest  the  pressure  of 
professional  duties  should  hinder  him  at  the  close  of  the 
week ;  known  him  as  an  office-bearer  in  the  church,  giving 
to  his  paster  all  the  hearty  co-operation,  encouragment  and 
support  which  a  man  of  his  clear  judgment  and  generous 
nature  was  so  capable  of  rendering ;  known  him  as  a  de- 
vout and  regular  attendant  on  all  the  services  of  the  church 
on  the  Sabbath  and  during  the  week,  in  heat  and  cold,  in 
sunshine   and  storni,  even  when  failing  health  rendered 
such  regular  attendance   difficult  and  hazardous ;  known 
him  as  the  friend  of  the. poor,  and  the  generous  contribu- 


JUDGE   KOBEftT   OULD.  37 

tor  to  all  the  enterprises  of  Christian  benevolence  ;  known 
him  as  a  member  of  eclesiastical  courts,  always  heard  with 
deference  when  he  spoke  because  of  his  familiarity  with 
eclesiastical  law  and  his  fair,  lucid  and  conciliating  style 
of  discussion  ;  known  him  as  a  friend  congenial  to  my  in- 
tellect and  heart,  loyal,  true,  and  loving ;  known  him  as 
an  appreciative  hearer,  never  listening  critically,  captious- 
ly or  distrustfully,  but  giving  me  his  fullest  sympathy  and 
confidence,  so  that  he  was  to  me  (none  of  you  will  misun- 
derstand what  I  mean)  as  it  it  were,  an  audience  in  him- 
self. And  now  that  I  shall  no  more  see  him  coming  with 
slow  and  measured  step  along  that  isle,  no  more  look  upon 
his  calm  and  placed  face,  full  of  light  and  loving  kindness, 
I  feel  like  this  church  hereafter  cannot  be  to  me  all  that  it 
has  been  since  1870. 

I  hasten  to  the  close.  I  was  absent  from  the  city  when 
the  mortal  chill  seized  him.  When  I  entered  his  chamber 
on  my  return  and  expressed  my  concern  at  finding  him  so 
ill,  he  smiled  and  quietly  said.  "  You  came  near  losing  one 
of  your  Elders  last  night."  Little  did  I  think  when  I  kneel- 
ed and  commended  him  to  God,  that  this  was  my  last  inter- 
view. The  next  morning  I  lost  him — oh,  no,  not  that — if 
heaven  found  him,  and  if  while  walking  with  God,  he  was 
not,  because  God  took  him. 

His  departure  was  sudden,  but  sudden  death  is  sudden 
glory  to  the  Christian.  It  seems  to  bring  the  eternal  world 
nearer  when  one  makes  the  transition  from  earth  to  heav- 
en by  a  single  step.  When  one  dies  by  long  and  lingering 
illness,  it  interposes,  as  it  were,  a  wide  and  dreary  territory 
between  the  two  worlds,  like  a  broad  and  barren  beach  of 
sand  between  cultivated  fields  and  the  ocean.  Not  so 
when  the  green  grass  comes  down  to  the  very  margin  of 
the  blue  water  and  is  kissed  by  its  rippling  waves.  Not  so 
when  the  spirit  with  a  bound  leaves  its  encumbering  clay. 
Then  heaven  is  not  distant  but  near  ;  a  door  in  the  very 
house  we  live  in,  a  door  in  the  very  house  we  die  in,  sud- 
denly opens,  and  in  an  instant  we  are  in  a  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

It  is  touching  and  impressive  to  remember  that  the  last 
effort  of  his  noble  intellect  and  loving  heart  was  in  por- 
traying the  character  and  commemorating  the  virtues  of 
the  lamented  Judge  Moncure— who  wore  his  ermine  spot- 
less until  he  put  on  brighter  robes  in  heaven— and  that  in 


38  JUDGE   ROBERT   OTJLD. 

so  doing  lie  was  unconsciously  pronouncing  his  own  eulogy. 
That  tribute  to  the  pure  and  incorruptible  Judge,  spread 
upon  the  records  of  the  court,  will  form  a  part  of  the  ju- 
dicial history  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  will  go  down  to 
other  generations  as  the  testimony  of  the  lawyers  and 
judges  of  our  time,  to  the  superior  dignity  and  worth  of 
moral  excellence  above  all  the  adventitious  advantages  of 
birth,wealth  and  power — a  testimony  not  from  theologians 
and  the  editors  of  religious  journals,  but  from  judges 
and  lawyers  to  the  nobility  of  a  life  whose  foundations 
were  laid  in  Christian  faith,  and  whose  superstructure  was 
a  harmonious  and  symmetrical  development  of  Christian 
manhood,  and  thus  to  compel  even  the  frivolous  and  pro- 
fane to  feel  "  how  awful  goodness  is,"  and  see  "  virtue  in 
her  own  shape  how  lovely." 

The  pause  he  made  when  he  said,  "  this  is  the  last  time 
I  shall  ever  address  this  court,"  before  he  added  "  as  it  is 
now  constituted,"  was  prophetic.  The  assertion  that,  "  as 
we  review  the  procession  of  the  dead  the  order  comes  for 
us  to  fair  in,"  is  now  historic. 

I  have  said  we  shall  see  our  friend  no  more,  but  I  recall 
the  words,  for 

"  Hope  looks  beyond  the  bounds  of  time, 
When  what  we  now  deplore 
Shall  rise  in  full  immortal  prime, 
And  bloom  to  fade  no  more." 

We  consign  these  mortal  remains  to  the  tomb  in  the  sure 
and  certain  hope  of  resurrection.  "We  part  a  while  from 
this  chastened  spirit,  but  in  the  midst  of  our  grief  we  are 
glad  that  the  ties  which  bind  us,  to  those  who  die  in  the 
Lord  are  not  severed  by  the  stroke  of  death,  but  that  these 
Christian  friendships,  cemented  by  the  love  of  Christ,  shall 
have  a  resurrection  beyond  the  grave,  and  spring  up  and 
flourish  beautiful  and  immortal  in  the  paradise  of  God.  We 
will  regain  our  departed  friends  in  the  land  of  re-union, 
recognition,  and  communion,  in  glory  everlasting,  and  so 
we  may  say,  though  with  vioces  made  tremulous  with  emo- 
tion, "  Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost ;  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever 
shall  be,  world  without  end.    Amen, 


JUDGE  ROBERT  OULD  39 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BIBLE  CLASSES 

Of  the  Second  Presbyterian   Church  Relative  to  the  Death  of 

Judge  ROBERT  OULD. 

Pursuant  to  an  invitation  of  the  Bible  Class  of  the  late 
Hon.  Robert  Ould,  LL.  D.,  a  joint  meeting  of  all  the  Bi- 
ble Classes  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  was  held 
in  the  north  gallery  of  the  Church,  Sunday  morning,  De- 
cember 31,  1882. 

Hon.  George  L.  Christian  was  called  to  the  chair  and 
Mr.  G.  Watson  James  was  made  Secretary.  The  Chairman 
stated  that  the  object  of  the  meeting  was  to  take  action 
touching  the  death  of  Judge  Ould. 

Mr.  James  Pleasants,  who,  at  the  request  of  the  Chair, 
had  consented  to  draft  a  memorial,  after  paying  a  brief 
and  touching  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased,  sub- 
mitted the  following : 

Resolved,  1.  That  in  the  death  of  Judge  Ould  the  members  of  his  Bible 
Class  have  sustained  an  incalculable  loss.  We  honored,  admired  and  loved 
him.  He  excelled  as  a  teacher  of  the  Bible ;  his  great  talents  nowhere 
shone  more  conspicuously.  He  brought  to  the  task  not  only  eminent  moral 
qualifications,  such  as  untiring  zeal,  gentleness  and  patience  of  temper,  a 
courteous  bearing  and  a  faithfulness  "unto  death,"  but  abilities  and  accom- 
plishments of  a  very  high  order.  He  was  a  profoui  d  thinker,  and  his  well- 
trained  and  vigorous  intellect  had  been  ripened  by  culture  and  scholarship. 
He  was  intimately  versed  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  and  a  devout 
believer  in  their  teachings,  and  his  studies  had  taken  a  wide  range  through 
the  fields  of  theolygy  and  Biblical  learning.  His  well-known  brilliant 
powers  of  eloquence  and  debate,  both  as  a  speaker  and  a  writer,  lent  to  his 
discourses  and  essays  on  the  grand  and  solemn  themes  of  Holy  Writ  the 
charms  of  style  and  oratory;  he  always  handled  those  themes  with  the  skill 
and  ability  of  a  master,  convincing  the  understanding  and  persuading  the 
heart, 


40  JUDGE  ROBERT  OTTLD 

Resolved,  2.  That  we,  for  whose  good  he  discharged  during  many  years 
his  "work  of  faith"  and  "labor  of  love"  in  the  cause  of  his  beloved  Lord, 
feel  that  ours  is  a  peculiarly  tender  sorrow,  beyond  our  common  grief  with 
the  citizens  of  this  community  and  the  members  of  this  Church.  The  rela- 
tions between  him  and  us  were  so  friendly  and  cordial ;  our  communion  was 
of  so  sacred  and  sweet  a  nature,  and  the  tie  between  us  so  strong  and  holy, 
and  our  intercourse  so  easy  and  delightful,  that,  like  the  Ephesian  brethren 
of  old  on  taking  their  last  leave  of  Paul  at  Melitus,  we  would  weep  sore, 
sorrowing  most  of  all  that  we  shall  see  his  face  no  more.  And  in  this  hal- 
lowed place,  where  he  delighted  to  gather  us  around  him,  and  had  so  en- 
deared himself  to  us  by  his  loving  kindness  and  self-sacrifice — where  he 

"Allured  to  brighter  worlds  and  led  the  way," 

would  we   record  our  lasting  appreciation  of  his  pre-eminent  worth,  our 
gratitude  for  his  labors  and  our  affection  for  his  memory. 

Resolved,  3.  That  the  works  of  Robert  Ould,  consisting  of  his  dis- 
courses, and  essays  and  lectures  before  this  class,  would  form  a  valuable 
addition  io  Bibl'cal  literature  and  learning,  and  should  live  after  him ;  and 
we  request  of  his  literary  executor  their  publication  for  the  good  of  man- 
kind. 

Resolved,  4.  That  a  copy  of  these  proceedings  be  given  to  the  widow 
and  family  of  our  lamented  teacher,  and  another  to  the  session  of  this 
Church,  with  a  request  that  they  may  be  spread  on  their  minutes. 

Dr.  George  W.  Harris  moved  to  amend  the  resolutions 
so  as  to  emlbody  a  request  that  the  proceedings  of  the 
meeting  be  published  in  the  "Central  Presbyterian." 

On  a  motion  of  Mr.  James,  seconded  by  Mr.  S.  H.  Hawes, 
the  resolutions,  as  amended,  were  unanimously  adopted. 

Adjourned. 

Geo.  L.  Christian,  Chairman, 

G.    Watson  James,  Secretary. 


APPENDIX 

By  Mr.  Booth,  previously  referred  to  : 

Being  the  only  living  associate  of  Judge  Moncure  on  that 
Revision  Committee  of  the  House  of  Delegates  in  1849, 
(Mr.  Ambler  the  only  one  of  the  Senate,)  it  has  been  deemed 
appropriate  and  important,  and  expressly  suggested  and 
impressed  by  Judge  Ould,  that  I  should  present  and  thus 
perpetuate  any  incidents  and  concomitants  entwined  and 
interwoven  in  the  history  and  associations  of  that  great 
and  good  man ;  his  legal  fame  and  subsequent  promotion 
emanating  from  his  connection  and  paramount  achieve- 
ments in  what  others  have  pronounced  the  best  code  of 
laws  the  State  ever  had — and  thus  the  circumstances  of  its 
preparation  of  value  in  any  subsequent  exigency  of  simi- 
lar character. 

I  will  first  state  that  it  was  a  much  better  Code  when  it 
passed  from  the  committee  than  from  the  Legislature,  and 
I  do  not  think  I  can  enforce  a  more  important  injunction, 
that  never  again  should  a  code  of  laws  be  submitted  to  the 
ratification  of  a  promiscuous  assemblage  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-five  persons,  some  not  highly  skilled  in  the 
rudiments  of  the  inferior  sciences.  Some,  with  officious 
pretentions  in  proposed  alterations  or  amendments,  would 
excite  prejudices  against  the  explanations  and  protection 
of  the  committee  by  the  remark,  "  It  is  your  work,  and,  of 
course,  we  do  not  expect  your  concurrence  in  any  amend- 
ments," and  thus  succeeded  in  mutations  and  mutilations. 
The  strong-minded  Vincent  Witcher  was  put  on  that  com- 
mittee, as  General  Scott,  speaker  of  the  Senate  told  me,  in 
representation  and  protection  of  the  county  courts  and 
common  people,  and  most  faithfully  did  he  discharge  the 
trust  confided  to  him.  He  might  well  be  regarded  one  of 
6 


42  APPENDIX. 

nature's  no  blemen,  a  "  Native  born  Demosthenes,"  though 
it  is  said  he  was  late  in  life  learning  the  orthography  of 
the  English  language,  though  able  to  use  it  more  effectively 
than  some  of  the  most  learned  scholars.  He  was  the  hardest 
man  to  beat  out  of  any  position  he  once  took  I  ever  saw,  or 
ever  expect  to  see  again,  though  pleasant  and  courteous  in 
all  his  demonstrations,  and  a  favorite  with  the  committee. 

He  made  war  against  every  latin  word  requiring  satis- 
factory explanation  of  full  meaning  in  all  its  ramifications. 

When  beaten  on  motion  to  strike  out  the  words  "  bona 
fide,"  he  quietly  left  the  Senate  chamber  where  we  were 
then  sitting,  and  after  considerable  absence,  I  well  recol- 
lect his  tall  form  as  he  opened  the  door  on  his  return, 
seeming  to  be  elongated  several  inches,  and  with  magnifi- 
cent air  of  triumph  vociferated,  "  Gentlemen,  I  have  exam- 
ined every  dictionary  in  the  library,  and  the  words  bona 
fide  are  not  in  one  of  them." 

The  words  "bonus"  and  "fides"  never  occurred  to  him. 
It  was  really  amusing  to  see  the  chairman  attempting  to 
explain  and  illustrate  the  meaning  and  derivation  of  these 
latin  words.  He  was  generally  tolerably  successful  until  he 
came  to  the  words  "mutatis  mutandis,  de  bene  esse,"  &c. 
Ghastly  ghosts  with  gory  locks  could  scarcely  have  presented 
a  more  frightful  apparition.  It  must  be  admitted  the  chair- 
man had  all  he  could  do  to  the  extent  of  his  prolific  resources, 
and  a  little  more,  but  never  losing  his  equanimity  and 
good  temper.  I  was  really  not  aware  myself  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  such  explanation  to  the  unsophisticated  in  such 
language.  However,  the  things  to  be  changed,  as  he 
thought,  were  not  changed.  But  in  the  efforts  of  the  com- 
mittee to  withdraw  the  intricacies  of  litigation  from  the 
county  courts  and  transfer  them  to  the  superior  courts,  and 
simplify  the  proceedings  by  motion,  Ac,  were  much  muti- 
lated, and,  I  may  say,  destroyed.  I  never  attempted  it  in 
my  practice  but  once,  and  it  then  seemed  so  disjointed  and 
unintelligible  that  I  never  repeated  it.  By  way  of  putting 
it  in  better  hands  I  gave  my  book,  with  original  draft  and 
marginal  notes  of  the  different  phases,  to  my  learned  friend 
James  Alfred  Jones,  and  have  no  doubt  he  could  devise 
proceedings  preferable  to  either.  But  we  must  make  the 
best  of  such  matters,  and  leave  them  where  we  find  them. 

It  was  in  this  session  of  the  Legislature,  with  which 
Judge  Moncure  was  so  prominently  connected,  that  what 


APPENDIX.  43 

were  known  as  the  "  all  hazards  and  last  extremity  resolu- 
tions" were  discussed,  and  in  which  the  transcendent 
abilities  of  Robt.  E.  Scott  shone  with  such  surpassing  bril- 
liancy. With  a  personal  courage  unkown  to  Julius  Caesar 
(costing  his  valuable  life,  perhaps),  he  had  to  repel  the 
taunts  of  timidity  from  those  who  were  for  going  out  before 
breakfast  and  never  returned  to  be  heard  amidst  the  trum- 
pet's clangor  and  the  cannon's  roar.  Men  in  earnest  about 
fighting,  and  mean  to  stand  up  to  it,  never  spoil  for  it,  how- 
ever— they  may  spoil  the  fight.  Those  gallant  men  at 
Chancellorsville,  so  eloquently  and  thrillingly  described 
by  General  Fitz.  Lee,  required  and  possessed  more  than  an 
effervescence  to  support  their  heroic  bravery  and  unrivaled 
achievements. 

Well  do  I  recollect  Mr.  Scott's  poised,  extended  arm,  his 
handsome,  radiant,  determined  countenance,  flashing  eye 
(his  accurate  photograph  before  me  as  I  write),  as  he  por- 
trayed and  expressed  how  he  thought  he  could  stand  up  in 
a  cause  sustained  by  all  the  elements  of  deliberation  and 
forbearance,  and  determined  to  bear  the  consequences  in 
exigencies  of  final  resort.  His  power  seemed  sufficient  to 
shake  a  mountain.  He  was  immediately  followed  and 
ably  sustained  by  John  A.  Thompson,  Esq.  The  angry, 
foaming  current  had  become  too  strong  for  effective  resist- 
ance. 

Judge  Moncure,  I  think,  being  so  engaged  otherwise,  did 
not  fully  embark  amongst  these  raging  whitecaps,  and 
not  in  full  accord  with  party  affiliations.  He  was  fully 
alive  to  all  the  requirements  for  the  interests  of  his  section 
and  constituents  in  questions  pertaining  to  them — failing 
in  protection  in  what  he  regarded  the  blighting  effects  of 
some  conflicting  railroad  enterprise.  In  addition  to  those 
intellectual  giants  previously  named,  that  Legislature  pre- 
sented a  galaxy  that  would  glitter  in  any  position  they 
might  occupy.  No  ordinary  man  could  exhibit  any  special 
effulgence  amongst  such  luminaries  or  actors.  The  present 
living  roll-call  is  thus  fully  illustrative,  embracing  the 
names  of  Faulkner,  Thomson,  Barbour,  Thomas,  Sheffey, 
Watson,  Price,  Fairfax,  Ferguson,  Laidley,  Boyd,  Dorm  an, 
Critcher,  Rogers,  Finney,  Ambler,  McCue,  Burwell,  Irving, 
Chapman — others,  perhaps,  not  occurring  to  me  in  hasty 
enumeration,  and  others  deceased  equally  meritorious.  I 
have  not  designed  to  "be  discriminating  or  exclusive  in  any 


44  APPENDIX. 

selection  of  names.  I  might  thus  embrace  as  a  member  of 
that  committee,  as  almost  a  part  or  counterpart  of  Judge 
Moncure  himself,  in  Judge  Conway — really  a  brother-in- 
law,  I  believe,  {par  nobile  frairum) — of  most  exemplary  Chris- 
tian devotion  and  excellence,  and  general  desirable  attain- 
ments, he  and  Judge  Moncure  concurring  in  politics  and 
differing  from  the  majority  of  the" committee,  but  never, 
that  I  am  aware  of,  exciting  a  word  of  political  dissension, 
all  at  times  uniting  in  Mr.  Scott's  social  parental  mansion, 
exhibiting  the  fountain  of  his  intellectual  power  with  the 
amenities  of  real  elevation.  Indeed,  there  was  never  any- 
thing approaching  the  appellation  of  cold  except  some 
delightful  ice-cream,  for  which  I  strongly  suspected  that 
Mrs.  Conway  Robinson  was  responsible,  and  exciting  warm 
commendation  and  appreciation. 

Neither  in  debate  or  elsewhere  did  Judge  Moncure  have 
any  use  for  what  the  world  calls  bravery,  bravado,  pugna- 
city, &c.  He  might  have  lived  a  thousand  years  and  never 
given  or  received  any  such  offence  or  occasion.  Nor  did 
he  have  any  fear  unless  the  fear  of  that  in  "  fearing  which 
there's  nothing  else  to  fear."  All  this  may  be  fully  illus- 
trated in  the  sentiment — 

"  I  saw  the  martyr  at  the  stake, 
And  not  fierce  flames  his  faith  eoulcl  shake, 
Nor  death  his  sould  appal. 
I  asked  him  whence  such  strength  was  given? 
He  looked  triumphantly  to  Heaven, 
And  answered,  Christ  is  all," 

As  long  as  he  felt  it  was  his  duty  to  be  in  Rich- 
mond he  didn't  fear  the  cholera  any  more  than  he  did 
his  breakfast.  And  here  he  and  Mr.  Witcher  came  in 
direct  and  somewhat  amusing  conflict  and  contrast. 
While  Judge  Moncure  with  great  dignity,  solemnity  and 
earnestness  was  uttering  the  expression,  "The  path  of 
duty  is  the  path  of  safety — trust  in  God,"  Mr.  Witcher 
told  the  anecdote  of  a  good,  pious  old  lady  in  his  sec- 
tion, a  great  devotee  to  Providence  and  Providential  dis- 
pensations. He  said  the  horse  hitched  to  a  buggv  ran 
away  with  her,  and  she  afterwards  said  she  trusted  in 
Providence  till  the  breeching  broke,  and  then  she  gave  up. 
He  said  he  trusted  in  Providence  till  the  cholera  came, 
and  then  he  gave  up ;  and  he  carried  the  Legislature  an4 
Judge  Moncure  with  it  to  Fauquier  Springs. 


APPENDIX.  45 

But  except  that  I  am  now  detailing  the  incidents  of 
Judge  Moncure's  associations,  so  interwoven  with  these 
occurrences  as  to  defy  elimination,  and  in  the  conclusion 
which  any  one  can  read  or  not,  some  of  these  presentations 
might  be  regarded  a  digression. 

In  connection  with  the  resolutions  to  which  I  have 
referred,  incidental  conferences  with  such  as  Hons.  Thos. 
Ewing,  Samuel  F.  Vinton,  John  J.  Crittenden,  Sherman 
Seward,  Mr.  Lincoln's  favor  for  Root.  E.  Scott,  Esq.,  as 
Cabinet  officer,  in  protection  and  satisfaction  of  the  South ; 
corresponding  resolutions  in  the  handwriting  of  Thos. 
Ewing,  presented  to  a  committee  of  the  Legislature  by 
Judge  Henry  W.  Thomas,  might  be  profitable  subjects  for 
allusion  for  future  benefit,  a  sufficient  length  of  time  hav- 
ing elapsed  for  the  consideration  and  indulgence  of  calm 
and  deliberate  meditation. 

They  might  be  considered  unsuited  to  the  present  con- 
templation and  open  wounds  it  were  better  to  cicatrise, 
Gov.  A.  H.  Stephens  having  with  great  ability  and  research 
written  two  volumes  of  "War  Between  the  States." 

Not  so  with  Judge  Ould.  The  wounds  are  too  fresh, 
bleeding  too  profusely ;  the  dirges  sounding  too  solemnly 
and  extensively  for  any  general  historical  biography. 

Little  did  vre  think  when  returning  together  from  the 
bar  meeting  for  Judge  Moncure,  and  when  suggesting  the 
appropriateness  of  my  present  occupation,  how  soon  sim- 
ilar lamentations  and  appreciations  would  be  expressed 
for  him.  Truly,  "  in  the  midst  of  life  we  are  in  death." 
"We  had  recently  been  associated  at  his  own  house  in  ani- 
mated and  elevated  bridal  festivities;  at  his  own  private 
table,  with  charming  surroundings ;  in  his  own  pew,  under 
exalted  ministrations.  We  were  Elders  in  the  same  church, 
had  associated  as  representatives  in  the  same  judicatories, 
had  taken  "  sweet  counsel  and  walked  to  the  house  of  God 
together,"  realizing — 

"  'Tis  pleasant  in  our  pilgrimage, 
In  fair  or  stormy  weather, 
To  meet  a  traveler  Zioti  bound, 
And  journey  on  together." 

His  eloquent,  impressive  enunciatiations  in  presenting 
the  resolutions  of  the  bar  meeting  to  the  Court  of  Appeals 
were  the  re-echoing  and  reverberations  of  himself.  In  the 
beautiful,   eloquent,   expressive  words  of  Judge  Sheifey, 


46  APPENDIX. 

addressed  to  another — "  I  feel  deeply  with  you  in  connec- 
tion with  all  that  pertains  to  that  great  and  good  man 
whose  eulogy  Ould  so  recently  pronounced  with  burning 
eloquence  and  then  died.  It  would  seem  that  in  gazing 
upward,  where  Moncure  had  gone  before,  the  attraction 
was  irresistible,  and  Ould  was  drawn  up  too.  Two  pure, 
bright  lights  extinguished  on  earth,  but  still  shining  in 
Heaven." 

It  was  once,  at  least,  the  prevailing  impression  that  the 
profession  of  the  law  was  unfavorable  to  the  profession  of 
religion.  I  can  only  say,  that  with  Judge  John  Tayloe 
Lomax  as  a  preceptor  in  the  rudiments  of  the  law,  and 
Judge  Moncure  as  chairman  of  a  committee  revising  the 
laws,  and  other  distinguished  judges  and  lawyers  I  could 
name,  and  have  named,  and  may  name,  no  brighter  illus- 
trations of  Christian  excellence  and  perfection  need  be 
presented  effectually  to  refute  such  misconception.  Indeed, 
in  a  former  production  on  the  "Personality  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  written  chiefly  during  the  war  for  the  souls  of  the 
Confederate  prisoners,  while  supplying  their  bodies,  I 
remarked  :  "  This  personification  or  reality  by  faith  should 
enliven  every  occupation  or  profession,  especially  that 
accustoming  its  votaries  to  the  association  of  a  judge — a 
judgment  seat,  a  bar,  advocate,  trial,  judgment,  penalty, 
final  decree."  What  surer  guaranty  of  justice,  fidelity, 
integrity  and  propriety  in  a  judge  or  advocate  than  the 
impressive  and  abiding  conviction  that  lie  may  become 
the  subject  of  similar  proceedings  in  a  court  from  which 
there  is  no  appeal  from  the  sentence  "Depart  ye  cursed," 
or  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,"  &c.  And  when 
the  trembling  convict  retires  under  the  affecting  and 
despairing  benediction,  "May  the  Lord  have  mercy  upon 
upon  you,"  what  an  opportunity  for  personifying  the  expres- 
sion of  the  martyr  John  Bradford  under  similar  exhibition. 
"  There  goes  John  Bradford,  but  for  the  grace  of  God,"  or 
the  similar  expression  of  John  Bunyan  in  reference  to  the 
profane  swearer.  The  written  commendations  of  these  and 
similar  sentiments  are  appended  in  the  little  tract  or  trea- 
tise containing  them,  by  the  eminent  Christian  Supreme 
Court  Chief  Justices  Woodward  and  Sharswood,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Judge  Strong,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  others,  as  well  as  most  distinguished  divines. 


APPENDIX.  47 

General  Wm.  H.  Broadnax,  of  Dinwiddle  county,  and 
Gov.  Gilmer,  of  Albemarle  county,  Ya.,  were  members  of 
the  Virginia  Legislature  at  the  same  time,  and  boarded  at 
the  same  house.  Another  member,  fond  of  gaming,  &c, 
boarded  with  them  there.  He  said,  when  he  came  to  his 
breakfast  with  loss  of  sleep,  appetite,  and  with  other 
uncomfortable  annoyances,  and  saw  his  two  associates  come 
in  with  smiling  countenances  and  their  elegant,  pol- 
lished,  happy  manifestations,  he  could  not  stand  it,  and 
went  to  them  in  consultation,  perhaps,  or  their  actions 
spoke  louder  than  words ;  and  the  consequence  was  he  cer- 
tainly became  a  member  and,  I  think,  died  an  Elder  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church. 

General  Brodnax  died  calmly  at  his  home  in  the  zenith 
of  professional  fame  and  popularity,  surrounded  by  all  the 
comforts  and  embellishments  of  life,  remarking  on  the 
morning  of  his  death,  it  was  the  most  important  court  he 
was  ever  required  to  attend ;  but  left  to  his  choice,  he  pre- 
ferred to  attend  the  court  of  Heaven,  and  was  gratified. 

Governor  Gilmer  had  no  such  warning,  and  needed  none. 
But  oh !  how  unspeakably  important  the  necessity  of  prep- 
aration exhibited  in  an  event  which  cast  a  whole  nation 
into  mourning.  So  far  from  digression,  these  illustrations 
follow  irresistibly  in  the  wake  and  presentations  exhibited 
for  the  distinguished  individuals  referred  to  in  the  public 
remarks  that  have  occurred,  and  others  likely  to  occur,  as 
to  them  and  others  alluded  to.  What  now  remains  of  the 
mighty  warriors,  statesmen,  and  others  who  have  lived  and 
died  without  this  faith? — perhaps  .only  weeping,  wailing  and 
gnashing  of  teeth.  It  is  said  that  Sir  Walter  Scott,  who 
had  electrified  the  world  by  his  books,  when  on  his  dying- 
bed  desired  waiting  companions  to  read  to  him.  They 
enquired  from  what  book  ?  He  replied  there  was  but  one 
book  in  the  world,  and  that  was  the  Bible. 

On  such  occasions  there  are  sentiments  and  feelings  too 
big  for  utterance,  as  with  Judge  Anderson  following 
Judge  Ould — overwhelmed  by  such  effort  and  emotions  for 
his  dear  old  friend  and  associate.  I  can  only  conclude  with 
the  exclamation :  Farewell  dear  friends ;  we  shall  never 
again  meet  on  earth.     But  as  this  whole  life  compared 


627 


48  APPENDIX. 


with  eternity  is  but  a  twinkling,  the  aching  interval  is 
scarcely  long  enough  for  a  parting  salutation.  And  as  to 
those  who  remain — 

"  Then  let  us  each  in  strength  divine 
Still  walk  in  wisdom's  ways, 
That  we  and  those  we  love  may  join 
In  never  ceasing  praise. 

The  good  shall  meet  above, 

The  good  shall  meet  above. 

O  !  that  will  be  joyful, 

O  !  that  will  be  joyful, 

To  meet  to  part  no  more." 


